Orchard Hill Center: Health & Wellness - formerly Princeton Yoga

09/23/2025

Fall Equinox: Every season a delight at the Orchard Hill Center! (See video in comments and link below)

Looking for office space? Light-filled offices on this scenic 5-acre campus still available. Come to work happy every day.

Walk the labyrinth.

(See video reel here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/VhnqZSDvCn91Saz6/?mibextid=WC7FNe )

09/22/2025

Erev Rosh Hashanah

Tomorrow evening through Wednesday, September 24th is the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah and the beginning of what are called the Days of Awe, ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, next Tuesday eve October 1st and Wednesday, October 2nd.

Rosh Hashanah is known as the New Year for People [There are several “New Years” in Jewish tradition, for example, there's a New Year for Trees]. It's about our relationships with fellow travelers on this human plane and a season of personal and universal renewal - a symbolic opportunity to say goodbye to the old and hello to the new.

It is also a new year of sorts for folks settling back in from vacations, summer activities and back to school - as a perennial student, I always think of September as another new year, fresh new notebooks, new pens...may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life!

Yoga tells us that every moment, we have the opportunity to begin anew - This moment that you're in now is new. So is this one now. And this. And this. On and on, each moment is a New Year. So, set your intentions in clarity and joy, welcoming each moment anew…an opportunity to begin again with each new breath…

Can we find a new way of thinking, a new way of being, and certainly a new way of greeting one another at this challenging time and moment of choice – shall we evolve or devolve?

I want to take this opportunity to ask forgiveness of all for any words or deeds or actions I created, conscious or unconscious, which may have caused you any pain or suffering. Another custom!

May this New Year (moment) be a good time for you, a time of inspiration and renewal, discovery and learning, good health, ease of being, and joy. There’s no time like NOW!

And, now as I retired from Orchard Hill Center: Health & Wellness - formerly Princeton Yoga, I want to take another moment to thank the Princeton Yoga community for sharing your moments with me all those many 26 years and collectively building a community of new moments. I remain forever grateful that we crossed paths on this short journey of life and the experiment called PCYH!

Deborah Metzger

09/12/2025

Sept 11

Yitgadal v’yitkadash shemey rabah
We remember all who lost their lives [22] years ago today.
All who died in the burning Towers,
All who perished in Washington and in the fields of Pennsylvania.

We honor all who gave their lives in hopes of saving others
We bow to the courage of the first responders who without a thought rushed into the flames.

We stand with the children,
With the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, partners and spouses who said good-bye in a phone call
Who searched the rubble,
Who came away empty.

And we mourn.
We mourn the lost lives.

And we mourn the lost opportunities.

Twenty four years ago we were a nation broken, raw, vulnerable, exposed.
And we were a nation poised for greatness.
We were ready. We were willing to do anything.
Ask anything of us. We were all set to give.

But instead of reaching out to join with others
Instead of building bridges, of searching for connection
Our leaders turned our nation to war.

And so today we also mourn the young soldiers
The dead, the injured, the maimed
And we mourn the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and children
Of Iraq and Afghanistan. [DM add: And Ukraine and all places of senseless terrorism and murder and unspeakable horrors]

We mourn the lost lives
We mourn the squandered resources
We mourn all that could have been.

Oseh shalom bimromav
May we find a way, amid the rubble and the pain, to reach each other once again.
hu ya’aseh shalom
May we honor all that was lost by recommitting ourselves to peace,
Aleynu ve’al kol yisrael ve’al kol yishmael, ve’al kol yoshvay tevel
May our grief break open our hearts to each other. May our sadness break open our hearts to love.

Ve’imru amen. And we say amen.

~adapted from Jewish Mindfulness Organization, 2013

#9/11

09/01/2025

Hello September!

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost…”
~J.R.R. Tolkien

Depicted here is the labyrinth at the Orchard Hill Center. Created in 2016 in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Princeton Center for Yoga & Health. Memories of times gone by at the Orchard Hill Center: Health & Wellness - formerly Princeton Yoga. Yet the labyrinth still endures and is walked.

See Deborah Metzger’s blog about the impetus and process of its creation.

https://orchardhillcenter.com/unveiling-of-new-labyrinth-walk-the-labyrinth-with-intention/

08/04/2025

This Facebook memory just popped up.

Stunning photo. Timeless moment moment of Zen.



https://www.youtube.com/embed/moBvLFbFdJ4?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwL9gxZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHuLkSbfRZpQD1sXh1NrLOl9XZbNVLYHRs_aA_aO9uzwXz9jwbh6_3PnUUQzI_aem_LOvppQExz3yHM1UcHUOvOw

http://www.InterviewWithGodSite.com - Photographed and created by Floyd Holdman, Willie Holdman, & Richard Holdman.We hope you enjoy this as much as we had c...

08/01/2025

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down- who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

~Mary Oliver

Every season a delight at the Orchard Hill Center.

Office space available now - come to work happy every day!

07/30/2025

Some little tips for more toxic free living...

This hardwood floor cleaning recipe works as hard as you do. It both cleans and conditions. Use 1 gallon hot water, ¾ cup olive oil, ½ cup lemon juice and a few drops of Young Living orange essential oil. Mop and let it dry. It’s that simple!

07/29/2025

“This universe is much too big to hold onto, but it is the perfect size for letting go.” ~ Sharon Salzberg

.

07/18/2025

Perspective: The ability to look at something from a different point of view ~

07/01/2025

Hello July!

“Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind is not clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.”
~Wu-Men

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one and precious life?”
~Mary Oliver

Every season a delight at the Orchard Hill Center.

-men

06/23/2025

Sing the Water Song.

https://vimeo.com/273112273?ref=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR27zvLFr7uCLBvW6KrVg44jzSJRJkkUEAJ6LdkxCaDX_B7tbuPR6QeeqOs

06/20/2025

Summer Solstice!

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

“Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

Every season a delight at the Orchard Hill Center.