mindfulness and nyc

W. 81st St.

Central Park - Shadows and Light

Central Park Reservoir

Gothic Bridge Central Park 

Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest

Here are a few photos from my jaunt to NYC this past Thursday/Friday. It was a quick trip with a lot packed into about 31 hours. The purpose of the trip was to hear Jon Kabat-Zinn talk about the healing and transformative potential of mindfulness. The lecture was held at Symphony Space on the upper west side of Manhattan, and I found a cool hotel for my friend and I to stay at that was within a 20 minute walk to the theatre. We had a very smooth trip into the city (with a stop at a great diner in Goshen, NY) and had time to walk around and have a light dinner before getting in line for the 7-10 p.m. event. We were near the beginning of the line and were lucky enough to be sitting in the fourth row dead center of the lovely 765-seat theatre. I can't do justice to describing how amazing the event was. I didn't look at my watch one time (and even if I had, as Kabat-Zinn joked, it would have still been "now.") He incorporated meditation practice into the lecture and wove in poems by Rumi, Dickinson, Rilke, Keats, Machado, Oliver (quoted my favorite... The Summer Day), and one poet that I really want to remember, someone I didn't know, whose poem wrecked me. Daniel or David perhaps with a double surname - who wrote with a Buddhist theme of not missing your life now by thinking about the future or past.

After the show, we had a glass of wine at the hotel bar and rested amazingly well. We decided that our due diligence would be to take a relatively silent walking meditation of as much of Central Park as we could walk before needing coffee and a bagel. We walked for about 90 minutes on a warm, sunny and breezy morning, covered a lot of ground, and I worked really hard to keep photo-taking to a minimum in order to be truly in the moment. I couldn't help myself a few times, but that's okay.Now I have a few souvenirs/ reminders of good practice. Afterward, we had the best bagel and coffee, and then we headed back.

There is so much diversity in New York City. The past few years with my old job, I would go to the busier part of Manhattan and to Brooklyn every November. I love the relative quiet and beauty of the upper west side. I imagine living there for a year. It would be really nice. 

Oh! And I almost forgot! On the car ride down, I got to see an enormous bald eagle perched in a tree on Route 17 heading east. It was unbelievably beautiful.

So that is my last couple of days. I am off to work the concessions stand at the high school this afternoon while the school hosts a state soccer tournament. We had a dusting of snow this morning that has now melted, but it is still pretty cold out there. Hoping for no injuries on the field. I am ready to serve some hot chocolate and hot dogs. Ciao!