Hello friends and family,

It’s December 18 at the time of writing. Just three short days away from the official start of winter and the darkest day of the year, winter solstice.

Here’s a quick sample of special stuff to get us into the new year:

108 sun sals for solstice on sat dec 21, 9-11am in studio earth
Dec 22-24 - full regular schedule
Closed Christmas Day
Dec 31: community acupuncture & yoga with DJ
Full schedule for New Year’s Day!
21 Day Morning Challenge- Jan 3 to Jan 23
Special membership sale - 52 classes for $520 or 1 yr unlimited for $1125

I always like to compose and end of the year letter celebrating you and our beloved community. So much happens in a year in our individual lives and as a result of our collective coming together and devotion to our mission.

I’ll try to keep this brief, which is not my strong suit, but my hope is to do a past-present-and-future snapshot:

What happened?

What’s happening?

And what’s coming up?

What happened?!

Aside from continuing to uphold our position as the best yoga studio in town and offering yoga 364 days a year, I would say 2024 @Sol Yoga has been marked most notably by being the year of the re-org! We officially initiated this project in the late spring and it is ongoing. You can read about it in great detail in the Sol Chronicles on the Messages pages of our website. I just added “Chapter 5: Resources.” These are pretty thorough and long reads so be prepared with a little time if you really wanna get the most out of it. But in short, while continuing to offer everything we’ve ever offered in the way of Yoga and Yoga education and wellness, we are slowly shifting from being identified as a ‘yoga studio’ that offers community on the side —> to being primarily identified as a Community that offers many portals to healing, connection and recovering our lost selves, including yoga!

What’s Happening!

So at present, we are made of:

-about 30 work exchange crewmembers

-about 20 regular teachers

-about 15 residents in our transitional healing co housing program

-about 100 active members

-about 30 devoted Yoga Teacher trainees in our 200 and 300 hour programs

-multiple offsite and Community classes in public facilities and recovery centers

-special collaborative efforts, including community Accupuncture and 12 step meetings

-weekly special groups to express and cultivate creativity and emotional self regulation

-a weekly meditation group

-about 30 yoga classes per week

-whew, and a few behind the scenes people yearning for a little solitude sabbatical :-)

What’s coming up!

Aerial Yoga is back! You can sign up now for special classes being offered, and there will be a four week introductory program in January for those that are new.
21 day morning practice challenge Jan 3-23
New to Yoga and special workshops to deepen your practice
We are interviewing for about three available beds in our cohousing for the new year. We have a running list of people in the inquiry and interview process.
Our nonprofit board of directors is meeting monthly and continuing to construct our nonprofit division
2025 is our 20th year as a community and small business and we will be hosting some celebrations!! And you’ll be invited.

Well, that’s pretty precise as far as a letter from me goes. But it seems rather devoid of the spirit of the Sol community, so I’ll have to give you a little story.

In fact, story, and your stories are really the heart beat of this community. From the pipsqueeks that join Bonnie for kids yoga to the youthful vigor of our most petite Yoga Teacher trainee, Ariana to the 84 year old towering and wise Richard, to the brave souls that come to share their most inner thoughts and feelings at Brave Space, to the men and women we get to connect with in treatment centers, to our long time anchor crew members like Pat S. and Nancy M, we all journey and have beautiful and wretched stories of triumph and defeat. We have joy and despair. Fortunately, we have a community to walk with us through all of it.

But that’s still so generic. I would like to select somebody special named Carter for this story. Carter is much more than meets the eye. Mysterious, gentle, playful, thoughtful, but also big and strong. A young handsome man with a ginormous, elegant smile. He’s clever and unique and writes poetry on the street corner for anyone who might be willing to engage for a little meet and greet. Homemade signage and a little bucket stand, write a spontaneous poem, yes, he can. A special lady who knew of Sol met him on the street and invited him to Brave Space. That’s how he found the Sol community. Intentional and methodical in his ways he slowly got to know us and participated in all of our other offerings over many months. At some point, he inquired about housing and ultimately found his way into our Downtown family, and then was the first to inhabit our country Farmhouse. Articulate in his expression, expansive and out of the box with his mind, he is one of a kind. More and more yoga he started to explore and as a resident, one of the perks is an opportunity to participate in the Yoga Teacher training. He is a very active member of our work exchange crew and always proposing new ideas as well as supporting fellow community. He is well informed, studied and educated and connected us with a phenomenal resource of Intentional communities and invited us to attend a nationwide weekend gathering of Intentional communities this past summer. What a tremendous, eye-opening experience to learn more about so many different ways people are striving to be connected and conscious.

I hope you get to meet and know Carter, hear one of his poems, or practice alongside of him. Or perhaps in the future he may be guiding and facilitating classes, programs and groups.

So many deep and special humans that enter from different portals… but come together for the same thing… connection.

I’ll close off this note by saying thank you. You may have no idea your impact on someone else with your presence, your quiet smile, your eye gaze, an unexpected hug, a moment of inquiry to genuinely explore how someone is doing, or just your comfort of being a person nearby on a yoga mat, breathing and existing together.

Personnally, as I share in some of the Sol Chronicals, 2024 has been filled with potholes and speed bumps and excruciating feelings of loss, fear, abandonment and despair. And, there has also been perfect joy and tremendous recovery and growth towards the most fully aligned and divinely connected version of myself I think I have been. And I walk every single step with somebody or some tool or some practice that this community offers. I am well held, so thank you.

If others can experience just a fraction of the privilege and connection that I experience, through this community, then we will be alright!

If you have desire to read more, scroll down

Much love & warmth,

Dorcas

Founding Board Member

Sol Yoga, Sol Center & Better Living Community