Dear elephriends,

Over the past year or so Bob Weisenberg, whom I’ve never yet met in the flesh, has contributed hundreds of comments and dozens of blogs and a few innovative book club/discussions to the elephant community. He hasn’t done so because he has nothing better to do—well, I hope that nurturing yoga community and dialogue is pretty high up on the list of things worth devoting one’s time to—but I think he’s done so because he sees this elephant forum’s ability to grow and be of service. To be of benefit—that’s my vow as a Buddhist, and an aspiration all we mindful lifers share.

I consider it a great honor that Bob, without asking anything in return, has come forward to lend his energies in a more formal way to elephant. My only fear? That I’ll have to work doubly as hard to make sure elephant’s other areas of focus—meditation, adventure, green, family—keep up with the quality of our yoga content and community.

One note: Bob is wildly popular. He’s a thoughtful, open gent. If, however, you’re one of the two or three folks who have questioned elephant’s yoga content in the past, please know that Bob (and I) do not claim any editorial control. This is an open forum—as Trungpa Rinpoche said, we’re nurturing flowers here, not putting lids on freedom. Disagree with something? Say so. ~ Waylon Lewis, ed-in-chief.

~

Hello everyone.  I just volunteered to come out of retirement to serve as full time Yoga Editor for Elephant Journal. Waylon has accepted my offer, so please consider me an integral part of the Elephant team.

Elephant Journal is at a terribly exciting place right now.  It’s big enough to have a large and enthusiastic audience, but small enough that we can take it in almost any direction we want it to go, and experiment with almost anything we want to try.

This is true in all subjects on Elephant.  But since Yoga is my particular interest, I’d like to ask all of you, writers and readers, new and experienced alike:

Where would you like to see Elephant Yoga go in the future?

To help get the discussion going, I’ll throw out a few of my own ideas:

Create special interest blogs for different types of Yoga, Anusara, Astanga, Kripalu, etc.

Bring on many more special guests, both for interviews and guest articles, like we’ve done thus far with Stefanie Syman, Lucy Edge,  Gotham Chopra and others.

Find ways to make it easier to find Yoga content you’re looking for, e.g. by creating more menu choices.

Republish great blogs from the past that cry out for more readership or discussion.

Write blogs in which we collect the best articles on a topic in one place, e.g. “Elephant Guide to Meditation.”

Create more highly participative topical discussion series like Gita in a Nutshell.

Those are just a few ideas off the top of my head.

Now please tell us your ideas!

Bob Weisenberg
Yoga Editor