Celebrating New Years Day

New Year’s Day for many people is a time for gathering to eat, drink, make merry and make resolutions. For our yoga center, it also marks our beginning.

In 2007, Jennifer and Laine took over Kitty’s studio, signing papers late into the evening at Kitty’s home on the last day of 2006, then driving to 39 Putnam Avenue to put the new sign up over the door as the New Year was being rung in.

The next morning, January 1, 2007, we held a bittersweet workshop – wishing our beloved Kitty well on her relocation to Colorado and celebrating the passing of the torch, the continuation of the community.

The next New Years Day, we held an open house at the yoga center, wondering if anyone would actually show up on the “morning after.” We were pleasantly surprised – a small but congenial crew gathered for a festive party and conversation – soup, bread, cake and bubbly and lots of good cheer.

For 2009, Sue Neufeld offered to lead a New Years Day workshop – “New Day, New Year, New You” – that soon became an eagerly anticipated annual tradition for many yogis, growing in size each year. In 2018 Sue led her last New Years workshop including her own real life stories of how her yoga practice supported her through chemo. We lost our beloved Sue just before Mothers Day of that year.

The following year, Jennifer invited Sara Neufeld – Sue’s daughter and an inspiring yoga teacher in her own right – to join with herself and Ellen to continue our tradition of welcoming in the New Year. The year 2020 inspired a new title – “2020: Set a Clear Vision.” The room was packed with 90 people attending.

Read below for Sara’s invitation for this year.

Since my mom's death, her friends Jennifer Brosious and Ellen McNally and I have continued her tradition of a New Year's Day yoga workshop. I want to laugh and cry simultaneously when I think about the event we held on Jan. 1, 2020. We crammed more than 90 people into Your Community Yoga Center, my sweet Bubbi among them. It took a few of us to get her up and down the stairs, and she was so proud to be there. The title of the class is what's laughable now: "Set A Clear Vision for 2020."

This January 1 … our title is "Align With Change."
Please join us.

–Sara Neufeld