The Summer Solstice, arriving this year on June 20, marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. For thousands of years, people around the world have celebrated this turning point in the annual cycle of light and darkness. Whether through festivals, bonfires, gatherings, or quiet reflection, the solstice has long invited us to pause and appreciate the abundance of summer, the beauty of the natural world, and our place within it.
Yet the solstice also carries a gentle reminder: even as we celebrate the year’s greatest light, the days that follow will gradually grow shorter. Nature teaches us that change is constant and that every season contains the seeds of the next. The Summer Solstice invites us to hold both gratitude and awareness—to savor the warmth, joy, and possibility of the present moment while recognizing the ever-turning cycles of life. In that spirit, may we take time this season to reconnect with nature, deepen our relationships, and appreciate the light we bring to one another’s lives.
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Our Minister: Ken Marino serves as a chaplain for UC Davis Home Health. He is a certified Reiki master, yoga teacher, author, and musician. His work integrates contemplative practice, interfaith engagement, and trauma-informed mindfulness. He studied philosophy at Stony Brook University, focusing on hermeneutics, Indian thought under Antonio De Nicolas, and modern continental philosophy with Jacques Derrida and Edward Casey. Ken’s spiritual journey began in the yoga and meditation communities of the Northeast including the Sri Chinmoy Center, Kripalu Ashram, Zen Mountain Monastery, and Yoga Anand Ashram. Ken volunteered at Omega Institute for Holistic Studies where he was introduced to mindfulness and yoga teachers Joan Halifax, Ram Dass, Swami Satchitananda, Stephen Levine, Joseph Goldstein, Deepak Chopra, and Jack Kornfield. He later pursued yoga therapy at the Kripalu Center, and deepened his yoga studies at the New York Jivamukti Center, and at Yoga Shanti with Rodney Yee. Deeply interested in the application of yoga and mindfulness to trauma as well as inter-religious dialogue and religion as a lived spiritual practice, Ken has taught at CSU Hayward and the City University of New York, and has led yoga programs through AARP and throughout the New York area. Ken attended seminary at Drew University and is completing the Tara Brach/Jack Kornfield mindfulness certification, integrating his academic studies with a holistic, embodied approach to mindfulness.