I am gearing up for Memorial Day weekend.  I just made a funny pun if you are a race car fan.  Get it?  Okay, race cars have gears.  Now do you get it?  The 100th running of the Indy 500 is this Sunday, so is a Formula One race in Monaco and a NASCAR race too.  I digress.  I always party and do family things on Memorial Day weekend and I hope you do too.  I like to think that the Americans that died in combat would want us to.  However on Monday, my focus shifts (another nice racing pun, eh?) to the day that was set aside by Congress as a national holiday.  On Monday, I usually attend a Memorial Day ceremony at a local cemetery where role call is made by the living to account for and remember those who never returned from combat.  It is very moving. Between the bugler playing Taps and the jets flying over in Missing Man Formation, you are forced to remember the meaning of the saying, "All gave some, some gave all."  This year is the first year I will add to that tradition.  As the director of Yoga For Vets, I encourage all yoga studios to either close or offer a reduced class schedule on Monday the 30th as a symbolic gesture that we remember and honor those war vets who never returned.  I own a yoga studio here in Panama City and will not close but instead offer only two classes out of the normal five.  The teachers who will teach the two classes selflessly agreed to teach the class for free to anyone who is a veteran, an additional way of getting people to think about our vets on Memorial Day.  Studios around the country have already agreed to do the same such as Chakra5 in Los Angeles. It is not too late for you. If you want to start your own tradition this Memorial Day that honors the fallen, I'd like to hear about it.  If you feel detached from the military, then try to remember a person who never returned to life in America, try to appreciate the freedom we have in America, the freedom to watch racing all day Sunday or to work at a Food Bank, or practice yoga.  It is your choice what you do this weekend, but please, on Monday make sure you remember what day it is and why.

Thanks and Namaste'