Saturday in New York can provide all the energy or relaxation you choose to have. Mine was a bit of both. The bulk of the day was spent in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, which is where I'm staying this week.
Shortly after waking I realized I was feeling something that ended up permeating the day: gratitude. Throughout the morning I had this strong sense that I was deeply thankful for this particular day, and for life itself. It was more than the fact that I should be grateful, but instead a desire to be fully engaged in gratitude and thankfulness.
I spent part of the morning working, then found a grocery store nearby so I could stock my kitchen with a few things. Then it was time for lunch. Whenever I travel I insist on eating at local places, and right around the corner from my apartment is Peaches, a great mashup of soul food and Cajun, with live music to boot. My next-door-neighbor and the bartender both suggested the shrimp po boy and they were right on target.
After lunch I began walking around this neighborhood of brownstones and every kind of shop you can imagine. Street fairs were happening on several blocks, and people were out enjoying the hot, but beautiful day. I planned to walk around the general area of my neighborhood and then head into Manhattan, but the more I walked, the more I wanted to walk.
Although I lost count, a conservative estimate is that I walked at least 60 blocks discovering all that I could in Bed-Stuy. Even better than that, I met so many people who were warm and welcoming, proud of their neighborhoods, and glad that I was here with them enjoying the beauty and diversity of this part of Gotham City. Some of them even stopped me on the street to ask me how I was doing, or remark on the beauty of the day. At Jefferson & Garber stands a beautiful building that used to house an armory, and is now a men's shelter. Two guys were standing in front of it, so I stopped to ask them about the building. They were both named Mike, both in their 50's, and both lifelong residents of the neighborhood.
Mike & Mike welcomed me warmly to their neighborhood, as well as gave me advice on what else I should check out in Brooklyn. The Mike's definitely love Brooklyn. It's God's acreage for them.
A lot of folks were sitting on the stoops of their buildings or in the small courtyards present in so many of the brownstones here. One such person turned out to confirm my sense of gratitude as I walked through his neighborhood. This older gentleman said hello to me, and then in a somewhat halting way he said, "Tank (not thank) God for another day. You know buy (boy), tank God for another day!"
First of all, as a 55-year-old, anytime somebody wants to refer to me as a boy, they're alright with me. But far more than that, this elderly sage/seer sitting on a stoop in Brooklyn let me know that gratitude was clearly the theme of the day.
Later in the evening I headed into Manhattan and had some great Italian food at a midtown place with some of my Yellow Rose friends. After that, I did a walkabout in midtown checking out places I haven't visited in years. The night was clear and the buildings had an extra gleam to them. Grand Central Station was packed with people and energy. I noticed a lot of laughter, even a sense of celebration in the place.
6th Ave. was getting cleaned up after an all-day street fair, also packed full of people taking in the life and energy of this amazing city. A lot of families packed the street, one generation sharing with another generation (or more) the distinct experience that is New York.
Energy, beauty, the stranger being warmly welcomed, these were large parts of my Saturday in the city. But, they all were experienced under the larger theme of gratitude, of thanksgiving. For all of this, and to paraphrase both the liturgy and the prophet sitting on his stoop in Bed-Stuy, "Tanks be to God."
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