LIGHT GLIMPSES for DARK DAYS

SATURDAY

Sunny and just Warm enough
Blooming gardens at the corner of my block and along Second Avenue in front of the playground are mostly maintained by the Parks department.

These old roses are abundant every year, but the weeding and clean up have fallen off in recent years.

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Wedding or Graduation?
I didn't find out, but these young women recruited their photographer friend to make a cell phone video of them in their finery while crossing Third Avenue.

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My Neighbors
Father and son walking West

~*~

SUNDAY
Recognition for a tree that grew to Propagate.
Sadly, the generous seed pods will fall on City concrete, be swept up and discarded.
(((sigh)))

 Non-Traditional Sunday Service

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogta8alHiU
~*~

 DARK DAYS
(worthwhile perspective)

Most of my posting about our National darkness are on my face book page, or selectively shared by email with certain friends. Things are actually so bad that I hesitate to inflict my opinion, knowing how much most of my friends and acquaintances are already suffering. But,this video look-back to 2012 considers the origins of our situation. "Gore Vidal investigates U.S. foreign policy throughout recent history, showing how it has contributed to the terrorist crisis. With his famous wit and insight, Vidal also demonstrates the ways in which the "War on Terrorism" is being used to curtail civil liberties and shred the Bill of Rights."

https://youtu.be/509x6ldT3wI
~*~

HAPPINESS
Re-reading a Favorite Book by a Favorite Author
"In whatever May Sarton writes one can hear the human heart pulsing just below the surface.” 
Washington Post Book World

http://books.wwnorton.com/books/978-0-393-34990-0/
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RECENT PHOTOGRAPHS

REVIEW

Chronological order

Friday

False alarm on East 15th Street
(Three trucks and many men in full gear moving fast)

Saturday
 Another major rehabilitation begins on East 23rd Street

 Some of my Neighbors early Saturday morning

Sunday Walk
Fairy Flowers
blooming on a tree at Gramercy Park
(shutter didn't open completely, and name escapes me)

After shopping for incense in Little India

a neglected empty lot on 28th Street

Berrying vine over the pine tree

Four-o-Clocks and more still thriving

Location

Next door, in the parking lot back of Epiphany school

 Hidden Mary on a bright day

"Mary at Midnight"
(manipulated photograph)

Monday

heading to Writing Group

Planter on 2nd at 22nd Street

 Tickseed

(?)

Clouds like Mountains

 Heading home
"Yuko" and "Ramda" posed when I admired the t-shirt
(bus stop on First Avenue at Houston)

Tuesday
Drawing from 2000 and the photograph it's based on.
"Hanuman"
(bought all these monkeys to give away at a satsang--"a Sanscrit word, meaning "to associate with Truth")

 Other Art Pieces
A 'sun' filled corner on a dark day

 Cheerful Rose

WEDNESDAY
At the zendo for Practice
Birthday Cupcakes

 Symbol

 Hand sewn

 ~*~

ROUNDUP

Activism post is in process, but there's too much material.  I have to rephotograph and coordinate the text so this instead for now: What I saw this past week

 ~*~

Monday

A gift from Dee Mallon (see link)

the touch of it so variable...

just lovely-Made my day.

~*~

Tuesday
Another gorgeous day begins

breaks warm and mild...

Signs of Spring abound.

I had lunch at home with dark music
and this is a found window!

 ~*~

Wednesday

Throwback to the Past

Me and Harriet Springer first met while I was at Theater school, and she was a painter. I remember her studio in Pittsburgh for the slanting floors and long windows, and in New York City the friendship continued. This was taken in my apartment by a professional photographer, Robbie McKeever.  We were 27 0r 28 I think. We shared a lot of laughs and tears, gossip, meals, wardrobes, one boyfriend (not at the same time), gin rummy games and scrabble, booze and cinnamon toast. She's been gone from the planet quite awhile now. I posted this at Face book Thursday.

My dear Florida friend makes this amazing art out of carefully cut paper discards and this is one just arrived...

I watched her do one once and was amazed at both her precision and patience

Spent some lovely off time with friend Wendy escaping current news and disturbed energy.  These are her shoes.

~*~

Notes to Self

While perusing the past I found this recipe

It's my next kitchen project

The end of a long time neighbor's apartment

He's gone but still fighting in the courts

Three days (Wednesday Thursday and Friday) to totally demolish his space!  It was disturbing as noise, and a reminder too that none of us are indispensable and what used to be community is only real estate now.

 ~*~

Thursday
Zen Practice for the second time this week.
The conch on the alter this past week and how glad I am for the practice and for this wonderful community of caring beings

***
Walking home slow

It's been warm and beautiful still.  This "Sculpture" - Madison Square Park Conservancy and renowned American sculptor Martin Puryear today opened Big Bling, a major sculpture to be on view through April 2nd, 2017. The temporary outdoor work, the thirty-third public art exhibition mounted by Mad. Sq. Art, the free contemporary art program of Madison Square Park Conservancy, is a multi-tier wood structure wrapped in fine chain-link fence. A gold-leafed shackle is anchored near the top of the structure. At forty feet high, Big Bling achieves colossal scale and elicits a range of readings, stimulating diverse and profound interpretations of its meaning.

***
This is a large wall made of tiles in a window 
49 East 21st Street
 Daltile, an industry-leading brand of ceramic, porcelain, glass, metal, and natural stone tile products, unveiled a newly-renovated design studio in the heart of Manhattan. The remodeled 3,700-square-foot studio space, featuring both Daltile and sister brand, Marazzi, products, was designed by designers for designers as a collaborative workspace.

~*~

Friday
I did taxes with Margarita, my old Union friend over on the West side.  This is her daughter's friend Charles, and Lucie their dog who has fallen in love with him.

 Then I traveled down Seventh Avenue to 10th Street
the glorious weather continues...

Attended a free reading at NYU Creative Writing program by Hettie Jones (see link) and here she is signing her latest book "Love H" for a delighted fan.

 Walking back home I noted this:
An all night participatory art event at the Salmagundi club. Only in New York.

 At 14th Street on Third Avenue I had a chat with "Brandy"
She ran away from home at 15 because her parents were drug addicts.  She's been on the streets and loosely associated with other street kids for about eight years.  She married another street kid and they've been together six years. They take showers at a homeless program on the lower e side but don't go into the shelter system because none will take cats or let her and her husband stay together.  When they beg they separate but stay close to each others location and they sell little things they glean from garbage.  They had an apartment for a year in Staten Island but "roommates loused it up" for them so they were evicted.  She gets jobs sometimes but they don't last.  Both cats look and feel very healthy.  They even have little tents for them and toys and food.  They sleep in a safe street space somewhere on the lower East side and the cats join them in their sleeping bags.  What happens to her in the future--to her husband and the  beloved cats?

I hope next time we meet I have something to offer in the way of an organization or some where that she might go to change her situation if she's willing.
 ~*~

Saturday
Chores got done.
The sun went away.
Thunder rolled over and it rained.
Wendy Golden Levitt shared a beautiful story and her Gigong Practice:

https://youtu.be/3K-0JpiJu-o

I'm content.
~*~

LINKS

Dee Mallon
https://deemallon.wordpress.com/2017/02/22/losing-things-and-finding-them/

Hettie Jones

Here she reads at the 7th Annual Charles Olson Lecture at the Cape Ann Museum. In addition to talking about Olson she reads from her new book, "Love, H: The Letters of Helene Dorn and Hettie Jones"

https://youtu.be/azn-0sYf-4Q