"I'm thinkin' bout the city, and how it's living proof people need to be together" -Ben Lee
I feel like I haven’t written anything in a while. My mind must have needed a break after the intense paper writing that signified the end of Winter quarter…New York was fabulous. I didn’t see big touristy sights such as the Statue of Liberty, the EmpireStateBuilding or the Met, but I did experience the feel of the city. I’ve never been one for guidebooks or plans anyway; I’ve always been a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl, letting the day unfold naturally. I walked the streets of the upper West side, East side, the village, Times Square, Brooklyn, Central Park, Midtown, Harlem, and the Bronx. I saw the buildings, fashion and skin color change from neighborhood to neighborhood. The personality of each neighborhood differs from the one before. I enjoyed acquainting myself with these new places.
However, acquaintanceship is enough for me. I don’t have the intensity and endurance to live in a city like New York. Being the introvert that I am, the thousands of people everywhere I look or turn made me completely claustrophobic and longing for my quiet Portland neighborhood. I still can’t get over the sheer number of people that live in the city, the packed streets couldn’t contain the crowds and many walked in the street side by side with the cabs and tour buses. And still there were thousands and millions more inside the hundred floor buildings in their tiny apartments and office spaces. My mind could hardly fathom so many people in one place.
Though, I wish I could have taken Central Park with me. I loved walking through the park, all crisp and sunny-like, brimming with charm and culture. So many people moving: running, biking and roller-blading, couples hand-in-hand taking a Sunday stroll, tourists from all over with their wide angle zoom lenses snapping artsy shots, the jazz band playing in the street and the guy dancing in front them in roller-skates, the smell of cotton candy and sound of horse carriages. I loved it all.
Here are a few pictures I snapped along the way with my non artsy zoom lens camera, but alas, they will have to suffice.
Central Park transportation
Sara always falls asleep on the subway, haha!
Times Square
John Lennon Memorial
Vendors outside the Met
Upper West side
Shadow Trees
"Presented to the city of New York and its music lovers"
This past year and past few weeks have been a time of change and transition for myself and so many of my friends. I am reminded over and over that nothing stays the same. We grow up. We move out of our parent’s homes. We move closer to friends. We move away from friends. We are working our way through life meeting the new and leaving the old behind. We are in a continual process of being and becoming. Rollo May said, “In human beings courage is necessary to make being and becoming possible.” We need to be courageous in the process of letting go and handing ourselves over to change and becoming who we are meant to be.
The phrase, “letting go” has been a loaded phrase for me ever since I was a little girl. I never wanted to “let go”. I never wanted things to change.
-I refused to believe my dog would never return after we hadn’t seen him in days. I wasn’t ready to let go.
-Year after year, my mom would make every attempt to get me to throw away my old toys and sentimental keepings. Every year I would plead to keep them, holding on to stuffed animals, birthday cards, and love letters. I wasn’t ready to let go.
-When I left for college, I clung to my friends at home, desperate for the familiar. I would go home any chance I could to be with them.
-After each of my summers in Malawi, I dreaded saying goodbye. The second I set foot on African soil, I was already clinging to hellos and sighing at the thought of goodbye.
-In moving into my studio, I had to get rid of things because it wouldn’t all fit in such a small space. I struggled in choosing what to keep and what to let go. There is security in stuff.
-In my own spiritual and emotional world, I have a plethora of things to let go of. I’ve packed them up and sit upon them, wondering when I will be ready to let them go.
In any season of change, there is letting go, a process of becoming. I find myself holding onto ‘how it was’ because it provides a sense of comfort. There is nothing comfortable about change and growing. It hurts to grow and it’s easier to cling to what you know than to reach out in faith for what could be. There is safety in what we know and fear in what we do not. There is a fear of letting go. As I experience change and transition alongside so many friends and strangers, I am praying that we’ll be able to let go of our fears and embrace this time of growing and becoming. That with each step of faith we would grow in courage. And even in our moments of feeling alone, that we would know deep within our bones that we are never alone. We are kept in the hands of one who will never let us go.
The Poet's Walk, Central Park
Riverside Park
The Met
Outside Sara's apt
