By Jenny Lynn
Summer Solstice has always felt meaningful to me. A reminder that everything moves in cycles. Light and dark. Growth and letting go. So when Lauren announced that Four Pebbles would be celebrating both Summer Solstice and International Yoga Day with 108 Sun Salutations, I knew I'd be there.
For weeks leading up to the event, Lauren held space for me through one of the more difficult seasons of my life. Somewhere in those conversations, we started talking about why 108 mattered to her. Not just as a yoga tradition, but as a way of marking the beginning of something. As she opens Four Pebbles, she's creating more than a studio. She's creating a third space. A place where people can gather, practice, and become a community.
I wanted to support that.
I also wanted to see people I hadn't practiced with in a long time.
If I'm being honest, I had no plans to do all 108 Sun Salutations.
The day before had been heavy. I had some difficult conversations with people I love, and by the time I got home I wasn't sure I'd even make it to class the next morning. But I set my alarm anyway.
On the drive over, I was explaining what Sun Salutations are to a friend, and realized something I'd never really put into words.
Yoga has been one of the few constants in my life.
Studios have changed. Teachers have come and gone. I've moved, started over, fallen apart, put myself back together. Somehow the practice has always been there, waiting without asking questions.
There's something about the rhythm of Sun Salutations that always brings me back. Breath. Reach. Fold. Step back. Lift your heart. Return to standing. It's simple enough that your body remembers, even when your mind is somewhere else. It feels less like movement and more like checking in with the sun overhead, the earth beneath your feet, and whatever version of yourself that shows up for each breath.
I got lost on the way there, which felt pretty accurate.
Lauren, Crystal, and Marisa somehow found the perfect pace. There was no rush, no pressure to keep up, just room to move through nine rounds of twelve Sun Salutations however your body wanted to move each moment.
There were breaks.
We modified.
We rested.
We kept going.
No one seemed interested in proving anything.
Somewhere around the middle, I stopped counting.
I noticed my breath instead.
I noticed that my shoulders had dropped.
I noticed that the grief I'd been carrying wasn't gone, but it wasn't sitting quite as heavily either.
Nothing dramatic happened.
I just felt a little more like myself.
By the time I drove home later that afternoon, things in my life were exactly the same. There were still difficult decisions ahead. Still uncertainty. But something had shifted just enough to remind me that I could move through it.
Sometimes all we can do is breathe.
Move.
Give thanks.
Hold space for one another.
And keep showing up for ourselves.