state of grace

Love it, hate it - New York City evokes extremes. Stunning senses and maxing us out with its all-out, in-your-face force and energy. 

There's a new rendition of the song, New York State of Mind. It's got an impressive roster of top-notch celebrities and personalities singing snippets of the song against a backdrop of NYC's five boroughs. 

Columbus Circle, New York City

Created to help NYC get back on its feet – could they have done so with more care and consideration? NYC is like a cat running out of its god given nine lives.

Hell bent on its dastardly “I’ll do it my way!” deluded, ego-filled centeredness. There is great love here but also great greed.

Worshiping the golden calf. Holy cow – the bullshit just never ends. How many times will this lesson repeat itself? We just never learn.

Do we? Don’t we? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What now NYC?

Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind”

for the city’s recovery & engagement

The center of it all. The city that never sleeps. Turned into a ghost town by an invisible assailant. Everyone who had somewhere else to go has left.

Except for the speeding sirens of first responders, silence rules the streets. Folks disappear behind locked and disinfected doors. Allowing some wildlife to come out and play.

Plants became our go-to therapy - cooped up indoors. We all enrolled in a master class – cooking, baking, sourdough starters. Writing classes. Book clubs. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom.

Working from home or furloughed – we grasped for other ways to connect, expand, direct our attention. Finding purpose in our limited options.

NYC places of worship

Wondering through unexplored or ignored interiors. Becoming Marie Kondo converts or virtual and actual couch potatoes.

Building our cocoons of safety to cushion us from our monkey minds and constant chatter.

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What if my purpose in life is to be? With every item, incident, and idea, here for us to learn more about ourselves?

The family we were born to or not? The education we got or did not? How and where we grew up and with?

Our relationships. Our choices. Our options. Our every breath. Accept it. It is what it is. Drop the reactiveness. The resistance.

Develop the muscles to surrender and not give up.

view from Asiate, Mandarin Hotel

Find myself in what is unfolding for me. Win or lose. Happy or not. Curious – like a baby.

Looking at life with a steady, unblinking gaze. Mesmerized. Watching it – with no input, interpretation, or interference.

Allowing all – to pass through, wash over me. Sitting with it – feeling its effect, how it affects me.

Applying all my attention, awareness, energy – to be silent, still, sure. How would that be? Can I do this? Will I be willing or willful?

me, making like a NYC tourist

What would the alternative be? Could I live like this? Be okay with it? Is it worth it? Going down this rabbit hole.

Maybe I can let my curiosity lead me? Lean into it. Be easy. Go gently. Watch and wait.

What’s there to lose? Let’s make an adventure of this.