What can I say? Every year I love the road trip to Solstice / International Yoga day in Time Sq. New York. The last 3 year's my daughter has been old enough to join me on this sweet little adventure to the big city. It's become our annual road trip. We always have an amazing time. The fact that we celebrate both Yoga and the Sun and in my option in the best place in the world to practice your yoga. The enviorment is rich with life like the firey ball of light shining down on us as you challenge your dedication to your self practice amongst the city that never sleeps.
The road trip to the celebration is always exciting too. We start out arriving at South station on the first inbound morning train to Boston. This year our neighbors joined us for Solstice. The bus ride is about 4hrs with one stop on the way. We arrive in Manhattan close to class time and walk a few blocks over to 7th and 46th streets to register and grab or mats & swag goodies, by now I'm beaming with child like joy. So excited to be celebrating the Sun as well as honoring International Yoga Day on this same day & with my baby girl we both enjoy traveling no matter the distance near or far and this was the perfect start to the summer.
Every year my excitement for this day has grownor my awareness of its importance in my life becomes more present. 2019 has been. A year of personal challenges and loss that I have managed to grow through and that I recognize is mostly due to my dedication to my asana and meditation practice (meditation practice is still & always will be a work in progress).
Feelings of appreciation comes over me, the journey from just a year ago and how different I am coming back to this place. As I practice with hundreds of fellow yogis that too have faced their personal challenges and even loss my awareness of my own experience is what I am focused on. This year as I had the pleasure of practicing next to an ageless yogis as I like to call my beautiful silver hair friends (we'll call her Carol for now). Carol from the city of Love shared that she too had been traveling for years to Time Sq. for Solstice and had recently lost an aging parent. As we cleaned up our mats and introduced our selves after the class. She shared that her yoga practice was what helped her get through this difficult time as well.
This year marks my 5th yr of celebrating Solstice & International Yoga day and my 4th here in Time Sq. and we have truly made this one of our annual summer destination. After our morning class we hang out in the big city enjoying food and shopping and in past years have even took in a movie before heading back to the bus terminal to make our way back to Boston. We always find the time flies by and every moment to be filled with excitement. It's been the season opener to our summer vacations and I look forward to it every year.
You can find information on how to participate in Solstice / International Yoga day on the Time Sq. website this is a free event with registration.