This is my Toronto blog post.  I attended the Toronto Yoga Conference last week and really enjoyed it. I learned so much this past week.  I came back to Seattle feeling very inspired in both my yoga practice and in my yoga teaching.

The week in Toronto turned out to be a wonderful five-fold highlight for me. My time in Toronto was filled with 1) conference classes, lectures, workshops, learning, and an ever deepening yoga practice 2) being comfortably hosted by Cathy and Steve Lewis and deepening friendships with my dear Toronto friends  3) reconnecting to and being warmly embraced by my loving, welcoming Toronto cousins related to me through my mother’s side of the family  4) discovering the dynamic and progressive city of Toronto, Canada and 5) researching a stunning location and venue for a future Field to Table Yoga Retreat in Sturgeon Point, Ontario (details will come your way later).

Exciting to take a workshop with Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman Yee:

One of the all day intensives I took was learning how to use Roll Model Therapy Balls to break tension throughout the body.  I was more sore from this practice than I was from any other yoga sessions I took!

My mother’s maternal aunt, Zia Vincenzina, immigrated long ago to Toronto, Canada with her family.  When I was a child, we made an annual drive from Indiana to Toronto to see our relatives.  These trips were our much-anticipated family vacations. We spent many Easter Sundays and summer vacations with our Toronto cousins.  My father drove us to Toronto and our cousins drove to Indiana to see us.  We always had a lovely time with our cousins. What I remember and treasure most about the family visits was the laughter, sitting around the table overflowing with great food and wine, dancing, (lots of dancing!), walking to the shopping areas of Toronto, going to High Park, and going to the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto. I also remember having to beg my parents to allow me to go to CNE with my sisters and cousins.  I was so much younger than my sisters and cousins, so begging to tag along was the only way I could ever manage to get permission. In the end, I did get permission to go. I loved going to fairs, but all I remember about that fair is walking through crowds of people.  I had to walk fast to keep up with the teens and my small feet ached, but I didn’t dare complain!

Reconnecting with my mother’s family in Toronto has been precious. Below are some photos my mother’s cousin showed me. I had never seen these two photos before:

High Park, Toronto, with my mother’s aunt, Zia Vincenzina (my grandmother’s sister). Standing to the left of Zia Vincenzina is my sister Nora. Girls sitting from left to right: my cousin Enza, my sister Toni, me, my sister Jeanie, and my sister Zina.

Below from left to right: My mom, Zina (in First Holy Communion dress), Toni, Jeanie, Nora, and me:

Toronto has so many nicknames.  Here are the ones I found online:

1. MUDDY YORK was common in the city’s settlement years, before the streets were paved and rain turned the dirt roads into mud.

2. HOGTOWN might have been coined due to the large meat packing industry in the city. Another theory is that residents from smaller cities throughout Canada referred to this larger city as a ‘hog’.

3. TORONTO THE GOOD is a title referencing the city’s strict moral code in the 19th century.

4. HOLLYWOOD NORTH refers to city’s strong film industry.

5. THE MEGACITY came on the heels of the amalgamation of the cities and boroughs in 1998 that made up Metropolitan Toronto.

6. T.O. is a short form of Toronto, Ontario, and is often shortened further to T-dot.

7. THE 416 refers to the original telephone area code for Toronto.

8. THE 6: Toronto rapper Drake’s latest album is titled Views From The 6, believed to be a salute to his hometown’s more popular area codes, 416 and 647.

An April dusting of snow in Toronto:

Toronto is Canada’s largest city and has a population of 2.8 million.  Toronto has a very good mass transit system in place.

Toronto reminds me of the Windy City, Chicago.  Like Chicago, Toronto has a fabulous lake front and sits on one of the Great Lakes. Chicago is on Lake Michigan and Toronto is on Lake Ontario.  It was still unusually cold and windy near the lake front while I was in Toronto, but summers in Toronto are just as hot as they are in Chicago.

Toronto’s waterfront on Lake Ontario:

I love Toronto’s diversity, the sense of environmental awareness I experienced (yes, there’s always room for more improvement everywhere), the feeling of being safe (I felt so safe in the city), and the healthy economy. The city feels open and welcoming. It is truly an international city and is considered to be one of the most multi-culturally diverse cities in the world.  More than half of Toronto’s population was born outside of the country!

Below are some murals in Toronto:

A welcoming door:

On the way back from our visit to Sturgeon Point, a beautiful countryside scene waiting to green up for spring:

Signs of spring at the Lewis’ house: