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once called rose hill

The neighborhood east of Gramercy Park, south of Murray Hill, north of the East Village and west of the FDR Drive was once called Rose Hill. The “borders” are changing and now it’s part of the Gramercy area. Rose Hill is a pretty name, but it never really caught on. I lived there, once upon time, and always thought the neighborhood was rather nondescript. But the people living there enjoyed their quiet neighborhood. There was much less emphasis on what kind of places were there- restaurants, cafes, museums, galleries, sport clubs, etc.-entertainment wasn’t the high point. It can be an advantage when you live in Manhattan surrounded by neighborhoods just a walk away having a very different flavour.

Rose Hill (let’s call it Rose Hill for now) has more charm now than it ever did. Well, at least in my memory. There’s a busy Housing Works on 23rd Street between Lexington and Third next to the post office, and small shops with staying power line the neighborhood streets. Three hospitals are located in the area on First Avenue- the VA Hospital at 23rd Street, and heading north, Bellevue (with a complete makeover and looking good) and NYU.

Want to explore your creative side? At 209 East 23rd Street is the School of Visual Arts www.schoolofvisualarts.edu . And Baruch College www.baruch.cuny.edu , The City University of New York, is at 151 East 25th Street with a large much-needed new building across the street, the older Baruch buildings are still located on 23rd Street.

Walk to Lexington Avenue and you’ll find a nice selection of Indian stores having all the ingredients necessary to prepare an authentic Indian dish. Don’t want to cook? Check out the Indian, Japanese, French, Chinese, Italian, coffee shops, etc. and enjoy.

All things considered, it’s a good quiet neighborhood, as far as Manhattan neighborhoods go. Trains and buses are easily accessible. Want to walk? Choose your direction and in a very short time, you’ll be in Gramercy Park, Murray Hill, the East Village, Chelsea-keep walking-there’s no telling where you’ll end up.

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A fine thing

So much going on in the world; it’s an amazing place. If you watch the news it could make you think that it’s all going to pot at any moment. That’s the reason to check out the opposite views-to keep the balance. Let’s always try to remember to keep the balance, and look at the many other ways there are of viewing our world.

The description of Calcutta in The Asian Journal of THOMAS MERTON on pages 131, 132 reminds me, in a peculiar way, to keep the balance. It’s a fine book. Thomas Merton used the word “fine” a few times. It’s a word I’m going to use more often. One balancing way for me is to believe, attempt to understand and deeply know that love and compassion are powerful forces in the universe. The support of a good book, a wise person, a desperate experience that gives a better understanding of a situation – anything that allows us more clarity of our world in all its extremes – is a fine thing.

Today for me it’s these words:
“Intent is a force that exists in the universe. When sorcerers (those who live of the Source) beckon intent, it comes to them and sets up the path for attainment, which mean that sorcerers always accomplish what they set out to do.” – Carlos Casteneda, The Active Side of Infinity

“Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity.” – Thomas Merton

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live. – Goethe

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tea & sympathy

Tea and Sympathy www.teaandsympathynewyork.com is a tiny place, a very cozy place, located at 108-110 Greenwich Avenue in Manhattan. Have you guessed that it’s an “english restaurant”? If you decide to go, be prepared to wait. Remember, waiting is fine. The service is friendly and efficient. I’m at a loss as to how to describe its interior. You’ll have to see for yourself. Suffice it to say that it’s charming and informal.

When my daughter Sumi and I decided to meet one chilly sunny Sunday, it was for a salad. We were being good with that suggestion. But then, after meandering along the streets, Sumi suggested we try Tea and Sympathy. I’d not been there in awhile, and I always got a special feeling at the thought of going there — so off we went, two in agreement. The menu is definitely interesting, the food is tasty, the customers always seem in a good mood, even though space is tight. It’s almost like dining at the small home of an obliging relative who’s invited too many guests and everyone is determined to be comfortable no matter what. There are lots of choices on the menu: Soup, Salads, Starters, Side Dishes, Entrees, Puddings, Sandwiches, Desserts, Daily Specials, Sunday Special, Tea Time and Teas.

To be more specific, you’ll find a variety of good salads like stilton and walnut, smoked trout with horseradish sauce, fresh beetroot salad, there’s shepherd’s pie, tweed kettle pie, bangers, lentil dishes, steak and kidney pie, steak and guinness pie, welsh rarebit, sussex chicken, etc. There are scones with clotted cream and jam, good selection of teas with everyone having their own different appealing teapot. Beware, the desserts will gently call to you, Order me! Order me! They seem to be saying. Or is that my imagination? Next door there’s a “Take Away Menu.”

It’s really nice; it’s really enjoyable. You might really like it.

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patrick mooney, unlearning

After reading a few mind-grabbing articles in Namaste Magazine www.namastepublishing.co.uk , I turned a page and came upon an article by Patrick Mooney, and at the end of it was the heading “Whose Life are You Living?”. Wouldn’t that have caught your attention, too? Patrick Mooney is “an aspiring author, documentary filmmaker, lecturer and creator of the Institute of Unlearning.”

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“We arrive at truth, not by reason only, but also by the heart.” -Blaine Pascal

“If you don’t like where you are, change what you are.” – Henry Knight Miller

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ayahuasca

When I visited Ecuador in 2004, I stayed at a charming spa located two hours north of Quito. Big old bookcases stood in the corners of two sitting rooms, and a few large thick candles were held by wrought iron candle stands, and two large laughing Buddha statues were pure delight. Come to think of it, all the things in the two rooms were large and beautiful and inviting, and all spelled serenity. Most of the books in the old bookcases were left by travelers. I took one and brought it to a comfortable leather chair, sat back and began reading. It was about the ayahuasca plant, also called “the vine of the soul” and “the mother of the jungle” and “the teacher of teachers.” It grows in the Amazon jungle. The book was old and reading it was not easy, but I was enthralled with it.

Then a week after returning to the States I saw the words, “Mystical Healing in the Amazon” on a magazine cover. The December 2004 issue of Spirituality&Health magazine www.spiritualityhealth.com had a thoroughly-researched article about the ayahuasca vine written by Louise Danielle Palmer. She wrote that in Washington, DC she had attended a conference in indigenous healing traditions. It was there that she met Dr. Jacques Mabit, who left France in 1980 and worked for Doctors without Borders www.doctorswithoutborders.org in a small Peruvian village in the Andes. And it was there that he became acquainted with a very different way of healing people using ayahuasca and other plants. Eventually he opened a rehabilitation center in the town of Tarapoto in Peru for the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction.

Ayahuasca is an amazing healing plant as the writer of the article discovered when she traveled to Peru, spoke at length with Dr. Mabit, and took part in the ceremony at his center, Takiwasi www.takiwasi.com . She said, “Ayahuasca is most often mixed with the leaf of the chacruna plant and the tea is ingested only during ceremonies led by an ayahuasquero.” Those who have studied and used it have a deep reverence for its power to heal body and mind and connect one to the divine. Ms. Palmer said that for millennia the plant was used by tribes in the Amazon basin from Colombia, and Brazil to Peru and Suriname.

Ayahuasca and other healing plants are used by those who see things differently. I like to think of this special vine as one of Life’s beautiful gifts.

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mitch, thoughts of a man well-loved

His name was Lucien J. Michaud. He was dad to Judy and Norman, Pep to his grandchildren and great grandchildren, and Mitch to other family members and friends. He died at 90 on 28 February 2006-well-loved. He had beautiful twinkling blue eyes. He gave the most wonderful bear hugs. He was a tall man, and a strong man with a delightful French Canadian accent. He loved to sing. Long ago he was in a band. Perhaps some people are not meant to take their talent public. Instead they entertain groups of family and friends. He could liven up any room with his voice, and he did-with all his heart.

He was a manager of J.F. McElwain Shoe Co. working for 43 years in one of the mills that lined the banks of the Amoskeag River in Manchester, NH. It was a time when many French Canadians left Canada to settle in New England. A book was written about those mills. He enjoyed reading that book. He was a cross country skier, mechanic, belonged to a snowmobile club and chopped wood. For many, chopping wood is part of life in NH. He chopped wood for family and friends until last year. Germaine was his wife for 68 years. It was a good marriage. The love and memories from that marriage will be cherished and passed on for many years to come.

“The best portions of a good man’s life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts,
Of Kindness and love.” -William Wordsworth

“Four centuries have passed since Saint Teresa of Avila, the great Spanish mystic and reformer, committed to writing the experiences which brought her to the highest degree of sanctity in the Catholic Church. Near the end of her life, she wrote, ” ‘The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.’ ” -P.M.H. Atwater, Lh.D. Future Memory: How Those Who “See the Future” Shed New Light on the Workings of the Human Mind

“He Alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.” -Kahil Gibran

“Let us be kinder to one another.” -Aldous Huxley, on his deathbed

“We can think of no better symbol of man’s earthly life than that of the seed planted in the darkness of the earth in order that it may grow into the perfect flower. The perfect flower, the archetypal flower, is created first in the mind of God, and then the seed is planted in the earth to grow to fullness. So is it with you, who are as seeds planted in physical form to grow towards the light until you become perfect sons and daughters of God-the perfect archetypal God-man which God held in His mind in the beginning.” -White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1: How to Discover the Invisible Worlds and Find the Source of Healing

” We are above the skies and more than angels. . .
Although we have descended here, let us speed back
what place is this?” -Rumi