Travel Pictorial / Gratitude Journal: From Small town USA to NYC 2014 / 2015

It was a reunion in many ways.

Of friends and family.

I never really intended to return to the US in Winter. That would just be bad travel planning. But the opportunity came. The stars were aligned. So we went. On a 24 hour journey, on planes, trains (yes that's you Amtrak), cars and friggin buses (yes that's you, damned Greyhound)!

For me, it was a special trip. While family is always a reason to go anywhere, and certainly that was the reason for going to what I finally called Hicksville USA, it was NYC that got me into a flurry of emotions.

I had not been back to NYC, the place I feel where my soul really lives, for years.  And I was finally going to be able to relive the great times I shared with my friend years ago, but this time in his new apartment.  He had always been kind to me, letting me stay at his home for extended periods. That is an act of generosity you just can't really expect from a New Yorker, especially since space and privacy is a premium and guarded with zeal.  So, giving up that space and privacy for more than a few days was for sure a big deal, something that must have made his friends go WOT.  They might not have understood.  But they didn't need to understand.

Truth is, our lives are not as long as we imagine them to be. The clock ticks backwards from the time of our death that we don't have a clue about.  Sharing lives for a few weeks in the context of our continuum is really a drop in the ocean.  But the care and compassion it can generate is priceless and endless. That's not to say it should be taken for granted. But I sometimes wonder where we would have been if we had not had that time to share all the small things that together become the big picture.

There are some people that you just don't calculate, manipulate, delineate, segregate or separate.  He is one of them.  Some people are family not born of blood, but of ties that may have pre-existed in some cosmic plan. With him, I don't see the division of spaces and lives, as my home wherever it may be will always be his as well.  It is a rare thing to be able to click with someone, such that there is a knowing on so many important levels.

My experience in NYC, a city that has before burned me in many ways, turned around when I met him.  So many of my memories there are now tied to significant moments we shared, and again, these are things others may not be able to understand. So as I hopefully gain wisdom with age, and lose any reservations to express gratitude openly, I say here in my little nook in cyberspace that I am thankful everyday.

My life is already so much better because of this person and this human connection.

Danke.

I should also mention that a person is partly measured by the company he/she keeps and the choices he/she makes. And I will say that the friends he introduced me to are collectively such wonderful people. The blessings just multiplied when I met them, and they will forever have a place in my heart.

OK. So now to the pictures. You know why it is so easy to photograph NYC?  There is so much life in every corner.

Enjoy.