Yoga with my Gnomies

The gnome is the unofficial mythical mascot of our adopted home of Spring Grove, Minnesota, site of Big Raven Yoga’s global headquarters (such as they are). Spring Grove has deep roots in Norwegian culture, and its biggest annual celebration is Syttende Mai (“Seventeenth May”, Norway’s Constitution Day — roughly equivalent to our own Fourth of July without all the jingoistic chest-thumping).

The inspiration for our mat stems from Spring Grove’s annual Running With My Gnomies 5K. Since Syttende Mai is such an important weekend in Spring Grove, we decided it would also become the official opening date for Big Raven Farm. We sprang into action and worked day and night (literally!) to make our new yoga studio presentable by cleaning, refinishing floors, cleaning, painting walls, cleaning, painting trim and — you guessed it! — cleaning. We conducted a free pre-race yoga stretch session at the park downtown, and then came home, threw open the doors to the studio, and ran free yoga classes and workshop tours all weekend long.

By all accounts, it was a resounding success and the rest, as they say, is history…