This past weekend I was "Back Home Again in Indiana" to enjoy the beautiful fall colors. It had been eight years since I'd been back during what is hands down my favorite part of the year there.

I watched football, went on a nature hike with my niece and nephew, and skipped on country roads. I also taught my parents how to meditate which was really something! It was a wonderful and relaxing long weekend.

This morning, I found the video from a newscast I did way back in 1999 when I first created iskip.com. It is from a station out of Sacramento and it was so fun to watch that I decided to post it on You Tube! You can watch it for yourself by clicking here.

I can't believe how young I look! And little did I know then that I would still be skipping loud and skipping proud nearly a decade later. :-) What a long, strange skip it continues to be. Skip on!

I receieved an email from a young woman named Rossana who lives in Malta and wanted to share...

Hey, my name is Rosanna, im 16 & i come from Malta..well im sending you an email because ive been constantly complaining about my thighs that arent exactly in good shape..i just have exses fat that i cant really find out how to get rid of it and turn it into muscle. Now i bought a skipping rope and till now im only managing to survive doing 200 skips as im not that fit (though i'm not fat or anything, pretty normal weight.) I'm just asking how much do you think I should do and how many times a week that will help in improving my losing of excess fat from my knee upwards. Hope you will be able to give me an answer that will help. Thank you. Rosanna

And here is my reply....

Hi Rosanna,

First of all, I encourage you to work on loving yourself exactly as you are!! Most women's thighs are "fatter" than we might wish or think they should be (Thanks in large part to the supermodels in women's magazines)....But something tells me you are a beautiful young woman who looks more fantastic than you realize! So instead of obsessing about your thighs, I'd like to encourage you to focus on self-acceptance and appreciation for your youthful, energetic body as much as possible instead!!

My website is actually about non-rope skipping....Skipping down the street instead of walking or running! Kind of like they did on the Wizard of Oz...So I'm not sure what to tell you about the number of rope skip repetitions...What I can tell you is that in my experience, when I am doing the things that involve moving my body because it is FUN and I LOVE to do it on a regular basis...Like skipping or dancing or yoga....I'm always amazed at how weight effortlessly falls off of me....However, when I'm in a place of self-judgement and frustration with my body, even if I am going to the gym on the regular basis, the weight goes nowhere fast! It's funny how that works.

So I encourage you to find exercises that make your spirit happy....and to do them with a spirit of joy and celebration rather than trying to annihilate your thighs in anyway possible...and see what happens!

Skip on!
Kim Corbin
iskip.com

"Why march to the beat of your own drummer when you can skip?" --Dave May, The Official Skipping Ambassador of Oklahoma

It's been a magical San Francisco skipping kind of day...It started when I was contacting the local media about one of the books I am publicizing right now called A Writer's San Francisco by Eric Maisel. The book offers creative inspiration for writers amidst the backdrop of the city by the bay.

What I love most about the book is how it represents the creative soul of San Francisco I fell in love with when I moved here from the Midwest over a decade ago. Unfortunatley, it feels like a big part of the city's spirit has eroded in recent years...I think due in large part to the dot com days when artists were driven out in droves because they couldn't afford to live here anymore...So it makes me really happy to be spreading the word about a book that celebrates and honors the creative spark that makes San Francisco the magical place that it it is.

After work tonight, I spent some time with a couple of friends along SF's Embarcadero water front. There was an anti-Bush protest going on nearby and my friends told me there was a huge paper mache effigy of President Bush there. It sounded like it might be an interesting protest so we headed over to check it out.

My friends were on bikes and I was skipping between them. There was a woman on the stage screaming about how oppressed we are by the Bush administration and how it is time for us to fight back. She was really angry and the energy she was putting off was anything but peaceful. There were quite a few people standing around and listening...Without even thinking about it, I started skipping throughout the crowd...Weaving throughout clusters of people as I listened to the woman on the microphone tell me how outraged and angry I should be..I consciously made a decision not to let her negativity stop me from being the peaceful, positive energy I want to see in the world.

There was a sharp contrast to my free skipping energy and the mood and intensity of the crowd...The vibe of the event was laden with anger, oppresion, and rebellion...All of which are certainly an important part of the process of waking up from the deep slumber we have collectively been in as a culture... But it also is not where I personally choose to invest my time and energy in my quest to use my life to help create positive change on this planet.

The San Franciscans of the 1960s knew that love was the answer...and I hope and pray and pledge to do my part to help recreate that predominant cultural philosophy here and now! There are so many ways we can use our creative energy to create change on this planet without letting our grievances with the Bush administration become so intense that they drain the creative, positive part of us that is so desperately needed in this city, country, and world right now!

Positive energy people of the world unite. Onward and upward! Together we can and are changing the world.

How cool. I was just visiting the online encyclopedia called Wikipedia and decided to see what came up when I put in "Skipping". Much to my surprise and delight, iskip.com was referenced. Here's what they say about skipping:

Skipping can refer to several things:

* the hippity hoppity gait that comes naturally to children http://www.iskip.com
* a game or form of exercise using a skipping rope
* Stone skipping
* Snowmobile skipping
* Skipping class, otherwise known as truancy
* British slang for the USA term 'Dumpster diving

Woo hoo! Skip on!

Tonight on Dancing with the Stars Willa Ford and her partner went to ride a carousel as a treat after spending hours in the studio learning the waltz. She started skipping as they approached the merry-go-round and said this about the waltz, "It is this beautiful up and this beautiful down. It reminds me of my childhood. Of this beautiful love story I wished would happen to me."

Inspired in large part by that show, not to mention my dearest Dimitri, I recently started taking West Coast Swing dancing lessons. It's something I have wanted to do for a long time and it feels good to finally be doing it. I am reminded of how important and challenging it can be to let ourselves be a beginner. Interesting since as children we were beginners all the time and didn't think anything of it...We fell down and we got back up and it wasn't a big deal. Just like skipping, it seems to me that as adults we lose our natural willingness to learn by trial and error far too often.

When was the last time you tried something completley new? I can't recommend it highly enough...and would love to hear your stories of starting a new hobby if you want to email me and share!