 Did you take GuruPrem's Summer Solstice Class "Heal Me, Heal My World"? Tell us what you thought HERE. Sat Nam Yogi's, That was number thirty-four for me-that is, consecutive Summer Solstices. Wow! So many. What sets this year apart from the prior thirty-three? First of all, coming annually to Summer Solstice is a lot like a long term marriage. Having been married for 22 consecutive years gives me some perspective on both. I have remained in a committed relationship to the same person and the same annual Summer Solstice. What keeps me successful in both relationships? Every year, I attend Summer Solstice for the known and the unknown experiences. This dance of the expected and unexpected sustains my interest and feeds my commitment. Also, for about the last thirty years, I have served on the Sound Current Team at solstice, which consists of about thirty-five people working together as a team to deliver the actual sound current to the many class and event venues. After so many years, I still come to honor this seva, arriving each year at the sound booth with an open heart and hopefully open mind to do this seva. I love the reunion with my annual sound current friends. The more we learn about each other, the more were learn about all of us. On the surface, this Solstice seemed like many others before it. Setting up the microphones, speakers, TV's and dealing with the various audio problems and challenges that always occur. What keeps things fresh in any relationship is learning to experience new things in the familiar. Repetition can remain fresh if you can gain a deeper experience from the subtle. Being on the sound current team requires the ability to listen on many levels. This skill has served me well in every area of my life. We all want to be heard but few really know the art of listening. This year Summer Solstice spoke from the ethers and my listening was challenged, my relationship tested. Summer Solstice 2012 celebrating the Ether element--the subtle--made it's presence known in some very seemingly non-etheric ways. This provided environments that were at times harsh, but I learned to be more subtle from things that were not subtle. It was hotter and more crowded than expected, and remaining calm and graceful put many, including myself, to the test. We experienced audio difficulties that should have been simple fixes but were not. I found myself saying, "I can't fix this problem. Guru, you do it, make theses microphones work." Ultimately all the audio problems I faced were solved. Then there was the White Tantric Yoga. This year being a veteran didn't seem to help. When my arms hurt I would pray, "Guruji, hold up my arms," and they were held. When the wind nearly blew our tent down, keeping me awake all night with the noise and concern, a prayer from my heart to the ethers asked the Guru to please get me through this night, and I got through it. After a hot and dusty day when my only thought was a shower, I found the showers not working! That was the moment when my misery meter started rising high, and I thought briefly about ending my faithful relationship to Summer Solstice. Instead, something spoke to me from the ethers and I was reminded of the power and protection of the covenant I made with my commitment to annually attend Summer Solstice. I came to realize that missing a shower was a blessing so the dust of Ram Das Puri could remain a bit longer, allowing a deeper healing. For a bit of listening, and of experiencing the known and unknown, the music released at solstice was itself a good example of the old wrapped into the new. Classic mantras played and sung in wonderful new ways, including the album my wife and I released, Heal Me, which has some old, done anew. To me this is a good example of experiencing the thrill of the subtle. To hear this new music gohttp://simran-kaur-khalsa.bandcamp.com/album/heal-me My annual pilgrimage to this sacred land has enabled me to better experience the timeless, formless truth of my own soul. This experience helps me to sustain and nurture my other commitments year after year. In other words, I have a covenant with Ram Das Puri and the Summer Solstice Sadhana, which I come to every year to serve, honor and enjoy, and every year the energy and experience I have from this practice carries me through my other challenges and commitments. So when I am asked "How was Summer Solstice?" It was, as it has always been, Great! Blessings, GuruPrem Singh Khalsa | 
