Chapter 4: Healing & Recovery

A long delay since the last chronicle.   Because healing and recovery takes lots and lots of time, energy and patience.  And I’m in the midst of a healing journey and directly supporting quite a few people that are also healing.  So, I’ve not had much time to write.  

The Sol Community is a healing community with a new division dedicated to Healing & Recovery.   Our community tends to gather people that are trying to be well, get ‘better,’ or prevent dis-ease.  Whether it’s recovery from disease, divorce, addiction, loss of a spouse or child, breast cancer, PTSD, an eating disorder,  childbirth…and the list goes on and on…  healing takes time and the process can’t be rushed.  

I remember a woman who practiced yoga really diligently for a decade.  She came to yoga for healing from Lyme disease and many physical ailments. One day after that long 10 years, she shared with me that she realized how different her life was from the 10 years prior when she started.  She was now very healthy, divorced, changing careers (into yoga teaching) and with a radical new outlook on life.  It didn’t happen overnight, but the change was actually tremendous.  

People survive the unsurvivable.   One of the special qualities of humans is our adaptability.  Whether our suffering is as a result of an acute event or something chronic, we can endure quite a bit, even to the point of death, and bounce back.  

This story of triumph from darkness to light is one we love to share.  It gives us hope and inspiration and encouragement when things are hard.  These stories are usually frought with suffering and uncertainty and fear.  We usually prefer to share them after we’ve survived. After we have found our way out of the darkness, or beaten the bad guy or discovered safety and certainty.   

I’m like that. I don’t mind being open about my pain, after the pain is gone.  But as I season, I am better and better about being bare in the midst of it all.  There is liberation in being unglued or messy and still finding belonging.  I’d like to invite you into that messy place with me.  

At the moment, I’m reeling with uncertainty and fear.  Two uncomfortable feelings for me.  The story about ‘why’ is irrelevant except for how it might help you relate.   If I said, my child is unwell or a family member is dying, you might empathize.  So we’ll use those two things as the most pressing matters that are causing my discontent.  

But I don’t need anyone to fix it.  I don’t need a solution.  Because I’m finally ok hanging out here, feeling uncertain or afraid.  But I haven’t always been. 

I used to flee discomfort much more quickly than I do these days.  I have had many techniques for this fleeing…. Working is one.  Anyone a workaholic?   Fixing is another.  Furiously trying to fix my discomfort, or yours for that matter.   Anyone a fixer?  Eating and drinking is another.  Anyone eat thier problems away? Or abstain from eating to have a sense of control?  Or drink alcohol to take the edge off, or drown discomfort?   I also like to try to ‘think’ away my discomfort.  Or better yet, learn it away.  Study, read, study, read, think about why I’m sad to avoid feeling sad.   Anyone over-think?   How about exercise?  I had a chapter of life where I ran away from my discomfort, literally.  Miles and miles, everyday.  The easiest and least effective for me theses days is to try to scroll my discomfort away.  I have to be real careful to not reach for the device when I’m feeling low to just numb out on instagram.  

And all of these mechanism of ‘escape’ could also be a healthy coping mechanism for a time being.  I can take a 20 minute run, or get lost in a ‘work’ project or share a cocktail with a friend in very healthy ways.   But they can all also become unhealthy if we use them to bypass opportunités for real growth and healing.  

I consider my recovery journey to have begun when I started yoga in 1998.  It is when I began to ‘recover’ my lost self.  To move from a state of ignorance and lack of self awareness, to a much deeper understanding of who I am and how I fit into this matrix of existence.  Yoga invites practitioners into a process that moves a person from darkness to light.  

About 10 years into yoga, I got to experience childbirth and ‘recovery’ or renegotiation of life from that.  

And then 21 years into the practice of yoga, I got to experience what so many other people do: divorce.  And the ongoing recovery and renegotionation of life from that. 

And recently, I picked up a 3 year chip at an AA meeting.  I decided to abstain from drinking alcohol after realizing the destructive impact it had in my relationship with my first husband and our 20 years together.  And the way it ‘helped’ me bypass a lot of uncomfortable feelings, only to discover that those feelings were indicators or warning signs for mis-alignment.  

And today, I write and speak up to heal from being mute as a child and silent much of my life.  Terrified to speak or be seen.  I’m still afraid, but I’ve learned I can do hard things.  

Those are more macro recovery journeys, but on a day to day basis, I am constantly re-covering and re-membering my true nature that is whole and at ease despite external circumstances.  

I share some of my experiences  to hopefully inspire you to join us and share yours.  Left alone in silence and isolation we crumble.  We heal in relationship, in community.  We also thrive in community.  We grieve in community. 

I’m sure that every single one of you that steps into the Sol Community has a story to share.   Or a listening ear and a nodding head to bear witness and resonate with someone else that might need to express.  

This past Wednesday night at 7pm in our Meditation and Discussion group, a rich, organic round of sharing revealed that we were all challenged in our relationships - for different reasons - that we discussed.  You could feel the group sigh of release to feel resonance and the feeling that comes from you realize you are not the only one struggling.  

But it’s more than just talking an sharing that we need to heal and recover.  We need tools and medicine and practices and healers.  

At Sol we have all of it.  

One of our great examples of this is Shelley Pentony.  One who practices and preaches with integrity.  She’s been a student of yoga since childhood, a devoted part of the Sol Community since she stepped in the door.  She has filled every single role we have ever had, with maybe only the exception of bookkeeper.  Most recently she has been the Director of the studio and lead facilitator of numerous of yoga teacher trainings. She has endless trainings and a long list of certifications.  But it not to big roles or the credentials that matter, it’s how she shows up and holds space for healing and recovery.  Individually and in groups, she uses her tools and wisdom to put people (and their nervous systems) at ease, creating space and connections imperative for lasting healing.  

It has been our intention to have her lead this division and help us develop even more programming and services to facilitate connection, healing and recovery through Sol Yoga Studio, our non profit Sol Center and among our Better Living intentional Community. 

But first, she’ll need a little time and support.  Shelley is embarking on a journey that so many people have navigated and one that she has been helping people through as an Integrative Practitioner at the Cancer Center for the past few years. Now it’s her turn to be supported.  Shelley is bravely undergoing treatment for breast cancer in the coming months and will be using her tools to navigate her own recovery.  See the sidebar for an invitation to support her care and send any messages of support to Shelley@solyoga.org.  When she’s up to it, she’ll join us to simply visit, practice or teach.  And, before we know it, I expect she’ll be sharing a story of triumph and recovery.  

Healing and recovery takes what it takes. A unique journey for each person.  For some, it’s exclusively an internal body, mind or spirit struggle, for others external factors are a major impediment to growth.  Homelessness, lack of employment, no family or dysfunctional family or community, lack of safety and poor nutrition are just a few examples of external factors that make inner healing nearly impossible.   And most often, it’s a combination of inner and external limitations that create dis-ease or lack of vitality. 

As part of our great re-org and dual business structure of Sol Yoga Inc & our non profit Sol Center, we aim to offer services and care for multidimensional healing with many open doors to welcome the full spectrum of humanity.   

Which is why we have expanded our offerings to include family style co-housing. And not just a place to crash but co-housing integrated with healing and a community of people on a healing journey.  What we come HOME to matters.  

We now have 12 residents across multiple units, plus my family of 7, so really a big family of 19.  Perhaps we could also call it micro-community. I’d like to tell you a little more about the residents, but I’d like to introduce you to someone who has been very instrumental and critical in our ability to build this family.   

Katie O’Conner, formerly Katie Schwartz is always around - real friendly, tiny person with big curly hair, big smile, strong hugger, consumante servant and caretaker.  Do you know Katie?  She’s been practicing yoga for a long time and been in recovery for almost 40 years.  Shes always growing and helping others grow.  Katie and I practice together a lot (daily for a year) and as a result we share our lives and go pretty deep.  She has been professionally working in service and recovery and human services for a long time.  A professional advocate for those that are in need.  She is passionate about the intersection of yoga & recovery and works directly with our residents to make sure they are connected to services and classes and people to help them grow and go where they want to grow.  As a member of our board of directors, she puts her heart and soul into caring for this community.  Whether it’s cooking for us, teaching yoga, helping a new resident move in and get settled, lending a ear, offering support, cleaning the studio or answering emails, she is a huge support and inspiration in our community.  

While katie doesn’t live in our houses, she joins us weekly for our Sunday house(es) meeting and community dinner.  She has helped us carve out our application and interview process and been witness to the welcoming and moving up and out of more than 10 residents over the past 20 months.  She makes personal 1:1 connections with each resident and provides impeccable care from her heart.  Thank you Katie. You are a gem.  

Healed people heal people.  Because of open hearted, people like Katie, we can open our doors wider. 

Back to a little snapshot of our residents… 

Without any tinkering, our resident led application and interview process is organically serving an incredibly diverse group of people.  In just 19 people we have all genders, ages 11-70, multiple races, various sexual orientations, a handful of religious affiliations, 1 married and 1 engaged couple and eight different types of healing journeys including divorce, mental health, substance use disorder, eating disorder, gambling, recovery from stroke, cancer and incarceration.  

We all gather on Sunday nights for family dinner and guess what…?!   We are just a bunch of humans striving toward better living. A chosen family oriented around healing and recovery.  And you are invited to dinner too!  Come join us! Text me at 301.788.5154 for the location.  

Next month, we’ll open up another residence for our extended Sol family.   4-8 more humans are welcome!  If you know someone who might be a good fit, have them text me directly.  Id love to meet them. 

And we’d appreciate your support.  Either through time, participation, financial contribution, etc.  We have begun to apply for grants as well as hope to garner some additional support for our mission.  

Whew, how did we get here- From yoga in a tiny little Studio Sky to co-housing for any human. 

Modern business building techniques suggest a niche must be determined in order for an entity to thrive. It must be very specific.  For example, offering yoga is quite narrow compared to serving multidimensional healing to all of humanity.   Our mission flys a bit in the face of western models.  But what most people don’t realize, is that yoga means ‘union’ and yoga is a state of being, not just something to do or something to buy.   It’s actually the very essence of connection and healthy relationship.  

So whatever you call it, yoga, connection, relationship, community, healing, recovery, service, love… that’s what we are doing…. 

Here’s a little recap of our reorg and interim status: 

Our mission - 

Sol Yoga & (Connection) Center is the heart of a thriving community that offers healing, connection and recovery support to any human striving toward better living. 

Our interim divisions: 

Healing & Recovery 

Éducation 

Practice 

Service 

In the coming chronicles, we explore the final two divisions:

Resources 

Communication

Contact us:

Info@solyoga.org 

Get involved: 

Join our work-exchange/volunteer crew by applying here: Volunteer Application

Make a donation to our non profit through Venmo:  look for @solconnectioncenter

Join us everyday - check out schedule at sol.yoga 

Dive deeper into yoga training: 200hr application. / 300hr application

Find out about housing:  Call or text 301.788.5154 

I’ll end this edition of the sol chronicles with a little more storytelling - snipits of death, triumph and joy! 

Remember at the beginning of this episode I mentioned I was in the midst of some uncomfortable feelings? Those have come and gone and come and gone.  I am blessed by alot of intimate meaningful relationships, but with that comes a lot of loss, greiving and pain when those people are unwell.   A close friend went missing for a bit and ‘relapsed’ but came out the other side stronger, a beloved old man has died an uncivilized messy death leaving a disaster behind, a child of mine has hurdled a pretty difficult battle with anorexia and that’s just in a few summer weeks.  As my friend Annabelle Thunderbird always says, ‘the practice sustains,’ and indeed it does.  We can do hard things that are just part of life if we have tools and a community of care.  

This story just from today… Debbie comes to yoga all the time, for years. She is friendly and joyful and committed and devoted to yoga and sol yoga.  There is no doubt a story behind that outer glow too.   This past week, she attended the community outdoor class on Carroll Creek - a co-sponsored event with Downtown Partnership!   She loves to get her yoga on and when there was no teacher due to a scheduling mix up, Debbie stepped up!  She tells the story of standing up to find a solution and asked the group of 20-30 people if anyone was a yoga teacher.  No one.  Then she asked the clever question if anyone had participated in yoga teacher training!  2 people had but they still didnt feel comfortable teaching!   So Debbie offered to share her practice with those that were there!  She was fully excited and ready until she walked up to the front of the class and suddenly she froze and didn’t know what to do!  A thought come to mind - ‘What would Shelley do?!’  Shelley Pentony has been teaching Debbie for years and prepared her well!  From there, the class and postures flowed through her and the group applauded at the end of the hour.   She told me that she is retroactively adding this to her bucket list because it was so deeply rewarding and brought her so much joy.  And us too!  Thank you Debbie!  Well done.  This is how it works.  Yoga works… if you do it.  It ignites and stokes a light within and oozes out of you and awakens a desire to give back.  

We have invited Debbie to this years yoga teacher training and she has accepted!   A life changing transformational program open to anyone with the willingness to say yes.  We are hosting a Q & A and back to school open house on September 14th from 12-3pm.  Free class at noon followed by time with the instructors and past trainees.  

Enjoy words for now, time for a mid day meditation for me before I get back to mothering and house holding.  

Catch you next time for a look into our resources and communications division. 

Dorcas 

Chapter 3: Love & Service

Chapter 3

Love & Service

Just a reminder to hang on for the ride with these chronicles.  It may seem to meander senselessly, but it all comes together.   I promised you a love story in this edition.  And we’ll get there but I’ll start with a kind of love that feels so accessible and nourishing.  

Sol is remarkably blessed and well cared for.  People, things and opportunities appear in our path when the time is exactly right.  We have learned to trust that we are held by grace.  And not only passively trust that, but be led by it.

Sol Yoga has had hundreds and hundreds of volunteers.  I can’t list them all, but I’ll give it a start… in no particular order… Charity, Melissa,Jamie, christina, Lisa, Mic, Caroline, Pat, Lee, Claire, Wendy, Katie, Louise, Ava, Chris, Christopher,  Maddie, Bonnie, Nancy, ivy, Scarlett, Shelley, Annabelle, Laura, John, Thais, John, Jake, Diana, MaryBeth, Mary, Meredith, Brian, Megan, Caroline, Kevin, and on and on…

It’s what we run on.  It’s in our blood and bones.  We are made of service.  An act of service that comes from devotion… a desire to give of oneself,  to donate, to belong, to contribute…

I propose that love and service go hand and hand. And perhaps, the key to joyful service is to be in service TO love - to the transcendent unconditional love that binds us all.  The love that is beyond outcome, beyond right and wrong, beyond judgement, beyond error.  

I mentioned a bunch of names of volunteers.  Each one of those names blossoms into a profoundly rich and deep story of a mutually nurturing relationship - the kind where healing and transformation occurs for both parties.  Here’s just a couple samples of the grace we recieve.

Pretty recently, we were discussing some simple, affordable ways to spruce up the outside of the garage.  The grand renovation completed in 2018 still has some leftover pieces we’ve yet to address.  In this casual conversation, Katie Stover stepped up with an offer to do a quicky paint job on the particle board.  Well, within a suspiciously close amount of time to this conversation, a gentleman showed up and just offered to finish the repair.   No charge, no catch.  He just does this… notices a construction need and offers to fix it.  Danny blew us away with his generosity. I mean, VERY generous.  AND, we seem to attract these kind of special humans oriented toward service.  

Another wonderful example is our longtime landlord at 256 West Patrick St - Tom Macintosh is incredibly generous.  He’s a gem. An old school farmer and family man, he is loved by many.  Rent has always been reasonable and during Covid he allowed us to stay rent free for sooo long… He was so understanding and compassionate while we figured out how to find our feet.  It was his graciousness and support and time that allowed us to pivot and offering housing and opening our doors to Alice, Christina, Miles, John - all who would open the door to much more….  (we will come back to this)

And then there are our forever volunteers like Pat Sprankle and Nancy Moncreif who are so remarkably generous and supportive.  And long lost volunteers like Brian who was the most incredible blanket folder of all time.   And quite frankly, our teachers and staff that have always put in WAY more hours than they could possibly be paid for.  

The spirit of service and surrender are alive at Sol. Different traditions have different names for this yielding or surrendering of self to something greater.  In yoga, it’s ishvara prandihana.  In religion, it’s the many names of God, in 12 step traditions, the phrase   ‘higher power’ is used.  And there are more philosophies and transitions that recognize the necessity of this for caring relationship for us to thrive.

On the flipside, when we are in service to selfishness, it’s usually destructive at some point, causing isolation and death.  Or at the very least, quite a bit of suffering as we grasp and protect for what we think we need, closing ourselves off from what’s available.  

This is such a tough thing to balance.  Self care with care of the whole. As a child, I watched my mother give herself so selflessly to us, her family.   I observed how delicate the balance is.  Do I choose myself or yield to the need of others?  Are my ‘wants’ in harmony with a broader vision or perhaps selfishly short sighted.  In community,  are the needs of one group overpowering another.  Beyond human to human surrender, we consider the care of our environment as an example of how our micro choices impact the whole.  And beyond that, how sentient beings surrender to divinity.  This  negotiation is ever present when we live in community.  How we RELATE to and care for one another is everything.  

Daily practices like yoga (but not limited to yoga) help us to discern when we have aired too much in one direction or the other - too selfish or too selfless.  And being in community gives us riverbanks to follow and accountability.

The Sol Community aspires to be these riverbanks and a container in which we can ebb and flow through life’s chapters of gifts and challenges.  Sometimes we have capaciousness to give and support others, other times we need to receive.  It’s normal.

We also believe ‘people support what they help to create.’  We love to be built and run by the insiders.  We are essentially in service to one another, giving away the thing we have.  

As such, one of our new divisions as part of our re-org is our ‘Service’ division.  Our service division focuses on building cooperative, intentional community, welcoming all ways of non transactional, relational giving and receiving.  (Email info@solyoga.org if you’d like to get involved).

This dynamic way of doing ‘business’  keeps things interesting.  It’s not a top down, standard fee-for-service kind of structure with the same people that gets stale.  We are nimble and available for possibility!  We are alive with a constant rotation of people cycling through.  

But we had no one cycling through during the pandemic.  Which leads me back to a road we started down earlier.  

During Covid, people were not gathering to do yoga, but I kept getting calls about housing (remember from chapter 1 - that I’m also in real estate?). With the help of Tom, we converted some of the dusty and dormant sol spaces to residential.  Our old studio sky became a beautiful penthouse  apartment with a view of the spires of frederick and first housed women in life transitions (divorce, building a business).  Our old retail boutique and tea lounge shut down and became transitional housing for Miles, then later John and so on.  It turned out, they were all people on a healing journey. Stopping off at Sol to find thier feet again.  A new kind of union (yoga) under our roof.

Meanwhile, I was on a healing journey of my own.  Recovering from separation and divorce from my high school beloved.

The short story is that I spent 6+ of the 20 years of Sol Yoga living abroad.  I left Fredrick with Adam in Jan 2014 with a 5, 3 and 6 month old and eventually made my way back to frederick with my three kids for good in Dec 2019.   My personal story has been shared and continues to get unpacked but my time in New Caledonia was filled with glitz and adventure and a life that looked like a dream but was also a dark night of the soul kind of journey.  I got back to America right in time for Covid.   

Mid covid, mid divorce, I was up to my eyeballs with solo parenting small children and trying to save a small business, like so many.  I was also deeply surrendered to my meditation practice and powerfully connected to my sense of divinity, grace, universe, god, God.  My life was upside down and super uncertain, but I was alive with connection and felt very held.  So much so that I really felt like it might be time to devote my life to service and path of love.  I had a little fantasy of becoming some version of a modern day nun.  I truly had no desire or plan to get entangled with another man. I felt complete with co-creating with humans and thought I’d like to uplevel and cocreate with the divine.  In a walk in the park one day, I had a little chat with the universe and made a specific call for a teacher to help me deepen my relationship with spirit.  I told god, “i’m ready!”

Alas, God is funny.  And no sooner had I made that demanding prayer for a teacher and the declaration that I would never have another human partner, that a special man showed up at my front door.  One of those real estate calls I got was from my far away brother asking if I had any small rentals available for his friend.  The call was right on time as the generosity of Tom Macintosh (remember, the landlord) was waining and it was time to start paying rent again.  I had the thought to sublet the empty old (now dusty) sol yoga boutique to generate some revenue.  Within a few weeks, a humble gentleman arrived on my front stoop.

I sorta kinda knew this guy from another life but not well.  We had had one memorable conversation and a few sightings.  After a period of loss, he’s be moving to Frederick for healing.  His journey had been a hard one.  It only took a few weeks to realize he would be the teacher I called for.    But not the guru kind I thought.  My teacher would be human relationship again - such a fertile ground for practicing what I preach and helping me heal all my wounds. And a partner to be in devotion and service with.  A fellow seeker on the path of truth.  A devotee and servant to love. Two is better than one, when you can work together for a higher calling.  

What does this have to do with Sol Yoga?  You’ll see. Need to take a pee break, maybe heat your coffee or get more popcorn?  It’s intermission.  A pause is good.  

It was mid pandemic when I met Miles.  It’s a love story for another Marvel movie and one I’m happy to openly share, but not today.  Suffice it to say it continues to grow and deepen.  It’s the real growth relationship I longed for.  

He came from other healing traditions and paths of truth. A voracious reader, he had read thousands of books I hadn’t and vice versus.  So we swapped theology, methodology, stories, experiences and discoveries.  We went to different spiritual gatherings, churches, workshops and classes… Different but the same.  All leading to the same conclusion - connection (union) with ultimate truth.  And all offering daily practices and community connection and service. It’s a passion of mine, to discover the ways in which we are similar.  To see our commonalities and discover how we are alike and how we belong to one another despite the superficial external ‘differences.’  Yoga has taught me this.  

Beyond studying with my new ‘teacher,’  my day job remained mothering, solyoga-ing and still a little real estate on the side.  I’ve been a landlord for 20+ years.  I had about 7 rental units until my portfolio shifted after my divorce.  With the remaining property,  I took a leap of faith and started a co-housing experiment focused on affordable transitional housing, specifically for people on some sort of healing journey.  Whew!  What the heck is that?!  

The cost of housing is insane - purchase and rental markets.  Do you know how hard it is to find an affordable place to live if you are solo?  And then if you are in transition from married to divorced, unwell to well, old to older, young to older etc.  It’s just hard to afford a place on your own.  Not to mention, the isolation of living alone is counter productive to successfully healing or recovering from trauma, loss, disease, etc.   Co-housing is a way to have the best of both worlds, built in community + affordable living.   

Miles was the catalyst for this and the first of over 25 residents that have now passed through our doors in the past 21 months.  It’s more than just a room rental as all residents recieve an unlimited  membership to the yoga studio, attend other connection focused healing groups we offer and  we gather on Sunday nights for a meeting and community dinner.  The concept of healing focused affordable co-housing allows people to immerse is a healthy lifestyle.  

I can’t wait to share more about it and all the people that are part of our sol community family.    And more about healing and recovery and the many paths back to wholeness.  We’ll focus on that in the next edition of Sol Chronicles.

And I’ll share more of my personal story of healing.  Miles & I continue our respective recoveries and it’s not always easy.  Partnership and relationship are where we get to practice our yoga off the mat.  We take all that theory and put it to the test.  Can I actually practice what I preach?  Can I BE  all those cliche things I say - ‘the balance between effort and ease,’ ‘aware’ and ‘accepting’ of my feelings, non judgmental, loving and kind, ‘comfortable with the uncomfortable,’ ‘honest with myself,’ ‘speak my truth,’ without doing harm (ahimsa).   Yeah, tall order.  Just ask Miles how I’m doing :-).

I honor you for reading this far.  I hope you are feeling connected, invited and inspired by our mission.  And I welcome you to come recieve from us, or come offer your gifts.  

And I’d love to hear about YOUR healing journey.  Write us a story.  And come read it at Brave Space.  

Until the next edition…

Dorcas

Sol Chronicles - Chapter 2 - Practice & Service (20 min read time)

Hello Friends,

It’s June 20 as I’m writing this.  Happy 1st day of summer.   I’m a summer lover.  I was inspired to crank out 108 sun salutes with Christine & Giuseppe Dimonte this evening and then chase the sunset west, dip in the Shenandoah river and catch the  full moon rise on the way back with my old time, wild-hair girlfriend Katrina.  For me, this is what summer is made for.  Endless days, dips in the rivers and all the spontaneous going west I can get (or just adventure).  

But writing (and sharing it) is also quite an adventure.  So here goes chapter 2 of the Sol Chronicles.  

I  promised a bit of past, present and future each edition of the chronicles and this time I’ll go way back with a personal story and then tie it in to present and future. 

Martial arts was my parents practice of choice for me and my brothers to master.  Starting at six and ending only when I picked up yoga, I practiced a lot of karate.   Looking back, it was pretty much yoga.  A mind, body, spirit practice all wrapped up in community.  It was a physical practice indeed but Mr. Wickham, my main teacher, asked us to answer this philosophical question: What is most important - past, present or future? I was a green belt, which must have made me about eight or nine. It felt like it was a trick question but I was determined to come up with a good answer that would please my teacher, and hopefully, be right!   I sat and thought and thought and settled on ‘the present,’ as the most important. I wrote an essay and turned it in.  Turns out, I did please my teacher!   He selected my essay as the ‘best,’ and so began my obsession with many things… philosophy, writing, getting praise and being right :-).  But I remember my thought process then as clearly as I do now… the past is gone, the future is unknown and all we have is right now!  

Duh. 

So simple.  

But… so not easy to embody as it turns out.  

So, we have infinite PRACTICES  and techniques like martial arts, yoga, meditation, running, cloud gazing, creativity, dance, journaling, gratitude, family meals, mindful eating, etc… all to help us remember to be present.  

And the wierd thing is, we seem to have to ré-remember to be present, like, every hour of every day. Hence, the call for healthy daily practices in almost all healing arts.  

Lucky for me, my wonderful parents, Pat & Ty, made sure I had tapas.  Tapas, one of the niyamas in yoga, is loosely understood as ‘disciple’ or the willpower (heat/fire) it takes to do hard or boring or austere things that are ultimately good for you or help make change.  Things like brushing your teeth, or physical exercise, or self restraint of some sort.  

For me, daily martial arts was one of the many practices that helped build my discipline.  So when I started yoga, the idea was already embedded in my neural pathways.  I’m not averse to hard work.  In fact, I can crave it.  (Which can also become an imbalance!!!) 

Good daily, weekly and seasonal habits are well known to be paramount to success in human life.  Lots of studies show. Plain and simple. 

So, as part of the great Sol Re-Org, we will have a ‘Practices’ division.  At present, the fabulous Annabelle Thunderbird is the interim lead of this division.  (we met her a few weeks ago in our weekly email - come in and visit her) 

Yoga is ONE pretty comprehensive daily practice we know works and we offer lots of expertise in this area. And, there are so many more that we welcome as well.  

Currently, as usual, on the schedule you’ll find 3-7 yoga inspired daily practices every single day.  For all levels, all pocket books, indoor and outside, many teachers, etc.  It’s what we’ve been doing for 20 yeas. But what you may not know about is a few additional areas of practice I’d like to invite you to:  

Monday 

Emotional Flexibility - it’s great if our hamstrings are flexible but really a secret key to good health is being able to process emotions in real time.  If not, we bottle them up and they can become quite poisonous or come out sideways.  On Mondays from 530-645pm, we sit in a small group and explore how to have emotional sobriety - not being controlled by our emotions.  It’s just about listening, feeling and if you feel comfortable, sharing.  This group is facilitated by humans with varying levels of emotional maturity.  We are not professionals but rather people on a path of recovery and discovery trying to heal from within.  This experience is offered by donation.  

Tuesday 

Community acupuncture is offered by Ava Toppo. Acupunture is another system of holistic healing utilized to support balance and restoration of our mind, body and spirit.  Ava is a yoga lover and passionate community builder who really really wants people to have access to the simple power of healing of acupuncture.  She rents our space and sets up a beautiful, serene, welcoming experience on Tuesdays from 4-7pm.  Her services are offered on a sliding scale.  Her energy is contagious and her treatments nourishing.  Check her out at www.stuckwithava.com

Wednesday

For about two years, we’ve been doing an experiment on Wednesday nights from. 530-645pm.  This class is focused on yoga for all kinds of recovery.  I’ll save the love story of how this came to be until next chapter, but know this is a seed of the deeper work we are doing in our community.  The vast majority of us are, or will need to, recover from an injury, setback, grief, disease, unexpected change, etc.  The process of healing and recovery IS the process of yoga.  We lose our selves or our health, only to (hopefully)find our way back.   It requires daily devotion and good habits to make our way back to vigor.   This special class allows us to connect with our healing journey as well as others who are in a similar process.  We do yoga, breathing, meditation and sharing.  It’s what you’ve come to expect from yoga but with a little extra connection and sensitivity to the impact of trauma.  

7pm -8pm 

Have no fear, meditation is not something to avoid if it’s been recommended to you.  It’s a powerfully healing practice to incorporate into your life daily.   This simple group consists of being still (lay down, have a chair, lean against the wall or sit in lotus) for about 20 minutes, then we share about our experience.  A facilitator shares some inspiration and tracks the time, but otherwise it’s an open group for listening and sharing.  Open to all seeking peace and facilitated by anyone open to leading. 

Thursday 

7-8pm

We rent our space out for a 12 step recovery meeting.  We’ve come to discover (more in the next chapter) that the 12 steps and yoga’s 8 limbs are remarkably similar and have the same end goal - liberation from suffering and connection with alignment.   12 step meetings are held worldwide for all kinds of process and substance addiction including food, co dependency, technology, drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, overworking, underearning, etc.   Millions of people worldwide heal in this community.  If you are curious, most meetings are open to anyone seeking peace.  Further, the combo of 12 steps plus yoga is a 1-2 punch for deep, lasting healing.

Saturday 

430pm 

Creativity and expression are pathways to presence, powerful tools for healing and a part of all thriving communities. The practice of vulnerability is required for healthy relationship.  

First it was BRAVE SPACE that emerged on Saturday afternoons as an invitation to share words that move you or words you write.  At present, it’s open to sharing of all kinds of creativity.  In this small group, some share a poem they have written, a moving letter to or from a loved one, a piece of art or photography, a song, bits of a book or story.  Whatever it is, it requires a little or a lot of bravery to say it out load.  But the safe space it lands in offers resonance and the experience of being seen and heard.  We are just humans in a circle. Not judges or teachers or professionals, just people.  One of the regular people and inspiration for this practice is Adrien Gehring, a board member of our non profit, yoga teacher on Saturday mornings at 930am and community healer that you’ll learn more about in the coming chronicles.  

And now, on alternating Saturdays, thanks to Adrien’s commitment to offering creativity as a portal to connection, CREATIVE SPACE is an open time for individuals to gather to do creativity - any kind - art, body movement, writing, music. We touch base in the beginning and end of the session, but otherwise parallel play! Part of this is the PRACTICE of formally setting aside time to tap into your creativity.  Coming together allows of to be accountable to deeping our relationship with our self and others. 

Sunday 

Community Day!

7pm Community Dinner 

Something you’ll hear more about in the coming chapters, and also part of an experiment over the past 2 years, we have been providing transitional housing to 5-15 people at a time across multiple homes downtown.   The common thread of all residents is they are all in a healing journey.  On Sunday, we all gather to connect and have a meal.  The meal is open to the community and we always invite new people to join us.  When the weather is cooperative, we enjoy this time in the ‘yoga yard’ behind the garage.  

Prior to dinner, inspired by one of our residents, we are trying this: 

430pm Weekly Reset - planning time for your week ahead, with friends!  Get all your lists made, budget accounted for, appointments planned, rides arranged, yoga classes for the week picked out, social events scheduled, etc.  Need help or have ideas, other people are in the room to bounce ideas off of or share your intentions for support.  Some people are already GREAT at organizing thier life and planning, others need some accountability and companionship in this area.  

Nothing special required for any of the above offerings. No special clothes or prerequisites. You can come in off the street in the moment or plan ahead as much as you want. They are not all yet listed on our website or schedule, so you can text me at 301.788.5154 if you’d like to learn more.

Whew, did you read ALL that?!  If so, you might have a good attention span and you might even like to read!  Speaking of, in the interest of supporting that excellent habit - reading and studying - we have a book club in the pipeline. 

As you can see, we feel like daily, weekly and seasonal practices are at the heart of a life well lived.  And you can sense that we like to do things in COMMUNITY. Together is better.  Solitude is good too, but we are dealing with an epidemic of post covid and modern day isolation across generations and socioeconomic statuses. Its actually killing us. It causes disease and prevents healing.  It’s time to come together, in person.  To rely on each other, be vulnerable and share the highs and lows of life.  To not only share joys and celebrate together but to do hard things together.  The beauty of a daily or weekly commitment is that you show up no matter what and you get to share your whole self with a community.  Not just showing up when things are great and you’ve got your makeup on.  But rolling out your mat when you might not want to, or reading a poem out load you aren’t sure about or talking about your feelings (scary!!) and realizing it makes you feel better.  Our collective capacity for tapas and vulnerability could stand to rise and when we do it together it feels euphoric.  We are not here to judge your methods or condemn your suffering but merely to to invite you into a natural euphoria we experience and to share your ways! 

I’ll save the topic of ‘service’ for the next edition and I’ll close out with a look back at our timeline. It was early 2008 when I left off last chapter.  

Studio Sky was packed on Friday nights in January and February.  Sometimes 29 people crammed into that little space with about 4 inches between mats.  Mic Mathers, Lee Jenkins, Karen French, Lisa Hinkle, Kim Khun and Anthony all come to mind… we had a great time.  Sweat, smiles, music, tears and lots of conversations in the lobby.  I was pregnant for the first time with my son Jonah who just drove me in a car today.  Time flies.  

The real estate market was slowing down and the first floor of 256 west Patrick street, that had been filled with opportunistic real estate agents, was opening up.  We didn’t really need a bigger, or another space for yoga, as not ALL of our classes were 29 people, just $5 Happy Hour.   But spirit whispered in my ear so loud that I couldn’t be practical.  

So we said yes again and the grungy carpet got ripped up, the hardwood floors buffed and shined.  Jan Faulkner and I put clay colored paint on the walls so we could call the grounding space. ‘Studio Earth,’ to balance ‘Studio Sky.’   Me and my not-yet-born baby in belly stood dangerously on ladders in the windows to hang things from the ceiling and carried large 4x8 sheets of plexiglass all by myself from the roof rack of my vintage BMW.  I was determined to get it done before I had a baby. I didn’t need anyone’s help then. So self righteous and determined in my strong youth :-). 

Amanda M, Meredith McAdams, Michael Krones, Ryan & Sam Neier, so many dedicated people came out in support as we opened the second studio in April 2008.   I remember my white white tabk top and big belly under it that was brewing.  I was beginning to really feel the duality of being uncomfortable and at ease at the same time, all the time. A time of expansion and opening.

The walls and floors of that studio began to absorb so much transformation.  Class after class, teacher training blossomed.  Kimberlyn Cahill, Shelley Pentony arrived, Julie Skarup, so many beautiful souls.  (My memories are random and the names I offer are just a smidge of the people in my heart). 

Adam and I birthed Jonah that year.  A real spiritual awakening for me as he arrived earth side in my home on July 3, 2008.  I was obsessed with all things birth for the next decade.  Such a monumental extraordinary but ordinary life experience that all humans have the right to experience.  It changed me and he changed my family and my goals and dreams.  As children do.  And lucky Jonah was held by you.  He came into the arms of a warm community of people that would forever influence his life.  For example, we had 40 days of meals prepared for us by the community so I could experience a ‘baby moon,’ of staying in my home with Jonah for 6 weeks.  I was deep into the Ayurvedic transitions and blessed by the care of Dr. Rosy and others during my pregnancy.  A privledge that most women and children never get.  I felt inspired to change that reality and help women be aware of their options and rights around birth.  

That year of growth and birth, our community also experienced a tragic death and we held a vigil in studio earth for our friend Anthony.    It was a painful loss.  

Birth seems much easier to hold space for than death.  But truly, both are certain and the way we care for one another during those times matters.   How we heal in the aftermath matters.  How we care and advocate for those without voices matter.  How we grieve (or don’t) matters.   It’s not just the big events like birth and death, because that is just a macro of the micro birth and death of each new new day and all the complexities of life that lie in the murky middle between birth and death.  And when we tend to these spikes and valleys on a daily basis and hold one another’s hand through all the inhales and exhales of life, we are at the very least, less alone.  

Most of the past 25 years I’ve been doing yoga, it has felt like a lifeline.  Every turn and transition, high and low, I have turned to yoga to help me process and make sense of change. That processing occurs internally and personally with practices like meditation and Svadyaya (self study) but only in the context of the interpersonal component that comes from being in community.  This relational component is powerful and essential to a thriving individual and community.   This practice and community have shaped me and led me to this moment.  

And each of you have a story of how you have come to this moment and how yoga has walked with you.  Our stories are important. They connect us and help us remember our kindred nature. Its imperative that we gather in person to hear one another.  To heal. To inspire. To connect.  We are like pack animals after all.  We need to know we belong to one another.  To feel and breathe together.  

This is the work I’m inspired by now.  The work of connecting, as the antidote to isolation.  I’ll say it again.   Isolation is deadly, on all fronts.  And it is killing us.  This is the tragedy. We are separating ourselves to death.  The US surgeon general issued a stern warning and strong call for institutions to create cultures of connection to reverse some of the chronic physical and mental diseases that are wiping us out.  Isolation is a result and a cause of suffering, but the solution is connection.  We must unite and co create relationships worth living for.  Both the one with ourselves and the ones with each other, our environment and our spiritual nature.  

Yoga is a great way to do that.  But there are actually many, many ways.  Having a meal together, doing a book study together, practicing creativity together, walking, sharing, caring for one another altruistcaly, not transactionally and perhaps most importantly, healing together.  Healing happens in relationship.  Not alone. 

Sol Yoga has always represented the deeper purpose of yoga, to join or unite - to return or recover our natural alignment of mind/body/spirit.   This is also the the aim of modern medicine, the return the person to a state of health.  And world religions too, aim to help people be spiritually healthy. And there are oodles of healing paths and programs designed to help people recover and heal. Ayurveda, yogas sister science and oldest, most continuously practiced healthcare system in the world is one, Chinese medicine another, 12 step recovery programs, a more modern invention from the 1930s, and on and on. 

All these healing paths have a couple things in common: 

-healthy daily practices

-connected community 

-inspiration/storytelling

So here we are, connecting.  Come on in.  Share your story with us.  I’m just sharing mine so you’ll share yours.  It’s safe to open up. To expose your underbelly.  Or to be a hard shell.  All are welcome.  

Established in 2005, we said this:  At Sol Yoga, our mission is to infuse and inspire health, wellness and wholeness into daily life through the practice of yoga.

None of that is going away… sol yoga continues under the umbrella of a broader mission.  

Coming up for 2025, we are working up a new mission statement and an integrated non profit model:   Sol (Connection) Center is the heart of a thriving community that offers healing, connection and recovery support to any human striving toward better living. 

That’s it for this week!  We’ll get into ‘service’ as a pillar of our community and a division next week.  And I’ll share the start of a little love story.  And a recap of last week, we had a great turnout for our ‘teacher’ connect on Tuesday night.  So many bright, inspired seekers on this path wanting to give back.  If that’s you too, get signed up for teacher training asap (accepting applications for 200 and 300hr programs now) or if you are already a teacher we are having another ‘teacher connect and onboarding’ on Friday July 19th, 10am-12pm.  It’s all on the website or in mind body online.  Or, email us at info@solyoga.org. 

You are loved.  Realizing it might take a little reminding.  Come on in for some connection.   

Dorcas

PS. below is a little reminder of what it feels like to drive for the first time. Or to be a passenger for the first time to your first born :-).

and the interview after…

Looking back to move forward: the Great Sol ReOrg

Hello sol community

The Great Sol Re-Org is underway!

And these are the Sol Chronicles

I’ll be coming to you weekly for the next 10 weeks for an episode from the past, present and future of Sol.  It may seem disjointed or scattered, indirect and circuitous, but you can trust it will all  connect perfectly.   Stay turned and keep coming back.  

Chapter 1

Sol is so much more than yoga!  It always has been and we continue to ooze off the mat and into daily life.

It’s Dorcas here.  Founder of Sol.   In the spirit of connecting, the way one might after a long hiatus,  I’d like to tell you a story and share some news with you. Its about you and me and WE and what’s been going on at Sol - dreams coming true, triumph of good over evil and love and tragedy.   It’s almost as good as a Marvel movie.  Well, maybe not, but defiantly as long… get your popcorn or a cup of coffee and settle in for a while…

Next year will be 20 years since Sol Yoga offered its first class on the top floor at 256 west Patrick street.  Opening week included people like Jan Faulkner on the schedule, Kristina Molinari and Kristen Townsend as ‘volunteers’ and people like Richard Mutaugh, Claire Winik, Robert Strasser, Ann Truelove, Linda Pruce, Melissa Yost, Miyako and Ally Elspas in the classes.  Since then we’ve been serving lots and lots of yoga with a side of community to Frederick folks and beyond.

Lots has transpired in 20 years for all of us and the whole wide world. Change is the only thing certain.   As such, every couple of years we usher in a new chapter of the history of our Sol Community.  In the 2023-25 chapter we are expanding our operations to include all aspects of life and we’ll be helping a lot more people in need.   Our yoga studio offering a side of community is REORIENTING to be a a vibrant community first, offering many sides, including the same award winning amazing yoga we’ve always offered.

A little historical review for you newbies…

In 2005, I was a 27 year old baby - full of enthusiasm, late night energy and naivety.  Sol yoga was born as an enterprise of passion, not a well thought out business plan or some long envisioned dream.  It was a grass roots, hands and feet on the mat kind of endeavor.  My first teacher, Katherine Lollar was closing ‘Inchworm Yoga.’  Sol Yoga was just a continuation of what she started and a solution to my fear that I wouldn’t have a place to keep doing what I loved (yoga) with the people I had come to love.  But, it was always a WE kinda thing.  Because who wants to do yoga alone, really?  Maybe in silence, side by side, but at least side by side.  There was peace in that connection; ease in my body, mind and sol that came from gathering to do this thing we called yoga.  I didn’t articulate till some years later that we were all doing the yoga as much for the physical practice as for the human connections that were forged.  So many of them still as strong now as they were in 2005. I have so many best friends and sol brothers and sisters through yoga.

The top floor of 256 West Patrick street was miraculously ours for $250/month thanks to the generosity of landlord and local real estate mougal Andy Mackintosh. He even completely renovated it and tore down walls for us.  I took a leap of faith and we opened on January 12,2005 to a class with 12 people!  

We didn’t open the studio for money.  At the time in 2005, my boyfriend (Adam) and I were DINK’s (dual income no kids). I had a pretty successful career in real estate sales and development and he traveled the world fixing computer networks in foreign countries.   The yoga was about refuge, recovery, serenity and peace, for all of us.  I wanted the studio to pay for itself but I didn’t have aspirations to ‘sell’ yoga or make any money at it.  Just enough to cover the $250 rent, electric bill and pay teachers.  We didn’t even have internet then.  

We grew organically based on the need.  And, In 2006 we started Good Cause Yoga as a donation based division of Sol Yoga so we could also offer yoga free of charge while simultaneouldy raising money for good causes.   It was an inspired idea shared with many in the yoga community including Beccah Bartlett and Geni Donnelley who spun off and built a yoga inspired non profit that does tremendous work in our community as well.  Since 2006, we have offered 18 years of free yoga all over Frederick and Washington Counties.  Donations were funneled to a range of charities - Over $75,000 worth!  We have always operated the Good Cause division like a non profit.  Eventually, we applied for an official EIN number during all those down days of the pandemic and became a 501c3 a few years ago.  

We have frequently fantasized about going non profit all the way and becoming a completly donation based studio (like ‘Yoga to the People’), but we have opted for a hybrid model -  money is a medium for really good things and it’s it’s about distributing resources and goodwill.  So we have kept both, the profit and non profit model.  As the story develops, you’ll see why this is important.  

But before I get back to the story, I shall pause  here for a moment and discuss this use of ‘I’ versus  ‘we’ that I keep using interchangeably. People have always come up to me to ask if I ‘own’ or started Sol.  The exchange always makes me very uncomfortable.  Because no one person ever really does anything, but certainly not this studio/community.  I may be the one that said yes, I’ll take final responsibility, but not one part of this has been done alone.  I also have this belief that ‘people support what they help to create.’  That the more we collaborate, the stronger we are.  So it always feels disengenuous to accept the praise for something that is not mine alone.  We built this.  It’s about all of you and even more, the dedication to and passion for yoga.  

This was beautifully demonstrated by the fact that seven years of that 20 year tenure of ours, I lived 8,000 miles away in a far flung country called New Caledonia.  The studio flourished in this chapter under the exquisite care of people like Erin Sprague, Jaime Russell, Shelley Pentony, Wendy Phillips, Shanna Gallegos and so many more.  My presence was not required.  

Back to 2006, another pivotal launch for the Sol Community was our first yoga teacher training.  With some naive over-confidence, but support from exquisite seasoned teachers like Carla McAdams from Mountain Spirit Yoga, and international wonders like Dr. Rosy Mann from Kripalu Institute, we started this little program that turns out, absolutely changes lives.  Since 2006 we have trained over 250 teachers and inspired so many people to discover themselves in a profoundly deep way.  From age 17-70’s, this program invites deep inquiry and intimate connections internally and externally. It’s so much more than yoga postures and over 1/2 of people that take ‘teacher training’ do it for the personal growth.  

This September, we’ll run our signature yearly program and luckily, there is still time to register.   The facilitation changes from year to year as we have so many transformational leaders.  The lead this year will be longtime Sol Community member Christine Dimonte.  Yoga saved her life.  You’ve got to hear her story…. Come meet Christine on Tuesday evenings at 530pm yoga.

As part of our Great Sol Re-org that is underway, Christine Dimonte has also been appointed our interim Education Division Lead.  Myself, Shelley Pentony and other advisors are supporting her in upleveling our care of teachers, programming and communication.  

We have invited Christine to support this phase of our development as she is also a professional educator with a masters in education and a longtime teacher and administrator in the Montgomery county public school system AND she has an extensive resume as a yoga teacher and teacher trainer PLUS over 15 years of devotion to the sol community.  She is an excellent facilitator of connection and community building.  We are thrilled to have her onboard in this capacity to help us develop our education division.  

One of the first things the education division will do, on June 18th is host a teacher audition and onboarding for any new teachers to sol!   Calling all teachers!  Register for this for free by signing up for the event on our class schedule.

Zooming out again,  the Education Division is just one of six divisions that you’ll learn about in these Sol Chronicles…

So stay tuned… for next weeks edition of the Sol Chronicles about the Great Re-Org.  

And as a preview, you should know, that it’s all good healthy evolution we are doing.  Our community,  as a whole is a macrocosm for the microcosm of the natural process of personal growth that comes from practicing yoga. We stay supple so we can  expand and contract and make new shapes with grace.   

In next edition, we look back at our first expansion into studio Earth in 2008.  We had some notable natural births and tragic deaths in that year.  I’ll also share with you our new mission statement and the heart of this operation which is twofold, practice and service.   

In the meantime, Shelley, myself and Annabelle are your points of contact for all your needs.