1 Year

1 year ago I traveled from San Francisco, California to New York, New York and arrived around now.  I was returning to the state where I was born and I usually call home: New York.  I had been away for fourteen months, on a journey in this country.  That's the longest I've been away from home base.  I loved the couple of weeks I spent at home with friends and family, revisiting my favorite places.  That vacation motivated me to move here again, which I did at the start of 10/13.  I've been working, teaching, writing and living in various parts of New York City since.  All I have to do before my first vacation in a year commences is spark discussions about "family & friends" and "endurance tests."

7/18 Still alive!

7/19 1st day of the fourth decade.  I enjoy a canoe floating on a lake while sipping tea.  I enjoy being here.

7/20 Sun on the water, friends, food, music, laughter and relaxation.

7/21 Riding home, dinner with loving beautiful intelligent and kind parents, back to the city

7/22 Must move car for street cleaning, go to work, car is towed, very first day working in the city in this new decade, but on the walk to pay the towing fine I listen to my favorite new CD, and see a spectacular sight unique to the city which I had never seen, reminding me of who I am,

7/23 Getting the car back and enjoying the sunny drive in the city to begin the day, teaching a new beginner's class in the morning, followed by the third week of an intermediate speaking and listening class.

7/24 Running with the summer rain

7/25 I am invited to get paid to chaperone foreign students at the glowing exciting crazy theme park beach at the edge of the city on the same island where I'd been born thirty years before.

I have lived today with waking, the water in the body, the water flowing on the body, the food, more water in the body, the tea, the sunlight and car and the brief moment of steering the wheel before climbing the hill and riding the underground in close proximity to everybody, before wandering through an ethnic Asian neighborhood in search of six delicious teas, and then a Japanese lucky fish dessert with bean, and riding to the books in the library, where I found five books on inspiring humanity: Marco Polo, the first famous journeyer in the East, Leonardo da Vinci, the innovative and unparalleled versatile genius artist, inventor and thinker, Ulysses S. Grant, the general winner of the biggest war in the history between the currently most influential country for freedom and bravery, Andrew Carnegie, the man of steel from rags to riches who gave his wealth to better causes and was once the train track creating, first philanthropist (love humans) and richest man in the world, and Maya Angelou, the poet, writer, storyteller, traveler, dancer, singer, daughter, sister, mother, political organizer, director, and inauguration speaker, all of which I can read in the next six weeks to keep my reading, thinking and learning mind in peak, while drinking healthy tea, continuing to eat and move and exercise and interact healthily, and write a real story about a journey with the cosmic sea.

You should have a great time

Enjoy your life and I enjoy mine, and maybe we enjoy life together sometime in our prime, and spread this joy to others, and share with others, and allow the world to make us feel joyful, and embrace the love of loving people and the world and the journey with life and lovers and family and all imaginable varieties of living breathing feeling thinking and moving creativity.

You do well and will wow us.

Today reminds me that I have learned we have to be brave as we walk in the glow of the sunlight and in the uncertain mystery of the night.

Thinking of the above this way: seeing the lights on the waters won with the music, right as the memories of a very courageous, loving and hard-working human come, a light shines.  Wouldn't have seen that in the sunlight, though it shows us bright green, blue, red, orange, yellow, purple and white.

Thank you lights and waters from grandmothers and grandfathers, we, your grandsons and granddaughters, with mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, friends and lovers of art from a heart.

The sun came first, but then so did the clouds, as the waters flowed where they always flow.  So I walked up the hill to where they sell life food.  When the paper had been given in a trade for some beans, a vegetable, and a fruit, I looked outside to see the sky had opened up and was pouring water while touching the world with powerful electricity.  That gave me the idea to walk back and change positions on the whole "I don't need plastic" decision, because I had musical devices and M.J.'s money leather in my pockets.  I wrapped up these treasures and ran into the flowing water of the sky, but I should have checked the traffic from the door first, because I had to wait for cars to race by.  Even so, I enjoyed the shower, and only had to run to the other side of the street to get to my door, where I smiled and grinned at the many huddled under shop awnings who couldn't afford to run home because their homes weren't as close as mine, yet they grinned back because they knew they would make it home eventually, and probably with drier clothes too.  Then I walked up the stairs and saw an older woman who was also very wet.  We just started laughing when we saw each other.  The sun comes too, and sometimes with the water.

One movement of the clock hand doesn't change who you are.

Then again, clock hands can give you something to think about.  A reason to reflect.

But when have I ever needed a reason to do that?

Even so, they say on that certificate of paper that I began living thirty years ago.  But here's the thing: at 11:41 pm.  Tomorrow.

So I really still have one more day of my 20's.  What should I do to celebrate my youth?  I think that first I'm going to eat breakfast like I always do, and then I'm going to travel through a city lived by people from around the world.  Then I'm going to lead a group of people from around the world in a discussion about travel.  After that I'm going to teach different people in a class about the art of storytelling.  When I am free from work, I'm going to go on a road trip somewhere beautiful, and with some friends.  I will listen to magic music and ponder the poetry of our story as I go.

That is the story of my 20's.

I've got one more "20's" day.

I can enjoy walking in the rain

Water kisses the trees

A light shines in you

I enjoy this view

I hope you do too

wherever you are

with the green and the blue

Eat, Enjoy, Energize

This is great!

I am working more than I have since harvest 2012.  43 hours in five days.  I know many people work much more than that.  I am not competing.  I am happy to be able to work and do something I enjoy for now, and keep going toward what I really love.

I celebrated at a Phish concert with a friend tonight.  I had never seen Phish in New York City before.  I usually think of the country when I think of them.  They played "Golden Age," which was the true meaning of the word awesome.  I know people say that word very often, but I am happy to say it anyway.  How else could I feel?  The entire New York City skyline was behind the stage.

Today I had a new class that meets once every seven days.  We are given a topic to discuss, without a textbook.

Luckily, the topic was "food."

I hadn't had time to prepare, but just like all of my favorite improvising musicians, I go with what feels right based on what I know, and do my best to help those in the class to express what they want to say.

Everyone has their own taste, but we all love food.

World: I'll keep it coming if you do.

Go Forth, Jewel Eyes

The journey of independence from coast to coast and back began at Seneca Lake in June 2012.

Thanks to my friends and my willingness to go along for the ride, I returned for Independence Day in July of 2014.

Thank you, moon!

A Comeback

I'm having a great evening.

I was having a dream that I didn't like when I woke up this morning.

This morning was very hot, but that's normal.  What wasn't normal was going to the shower and finding that they had shut the hot water off.  Then again, that happened yesterday morning without warning too, so maybe it will become normal.

Luckily, the cold shower woke me up more and cooled my core so that I could endure what the day had in store.

Then the internet didn't work.  The internet always works.  So that's how it was going to be.

The iPod worked though.  So did my 600 song "Wordless Music" playlist, which I had fallen asleep to on "random," and which happened to be on Errol Garner.

I went to the subway and got on the train, and it wasn't that crowded, and I even got a seat!  But the air conditioning wasn't on, which isn't normal.  That happens, but it's not fun to go through, especially when you are in your work clothes and going to be in front of classes of students for six hours in a row.

Right as I decided I would like a drink of refreshing water, I realized that I had forgotten my water bottle at home.

I didn't get angry (if you don't count the shower part).  I just wiped the sweat from my brow just like everyone else and knew that the morning rush would pass.

As soon as I got to work, the day went well.  I was early, so I had time to relax and prepare.  The first lesson was a temporary private lesson that began today and will continue for a few days.  The student is very advanced and has all sorts of graduate education that makes me wonder why I'm the one teaching him.

Then I had a private lesson with two more students who will also leave the city in a couple days.  I laughed as I told them about my morning, and they laughed and told me that the day would get better.

The third lesson is the main lesson of the day, which began this week and will supposedly continue for the next eight weeks.  The class is three hours a day, intermediate level students, about half of whom are from Japan, which is always fun.  We're discussing advertising this week, and making up "attention grabbers" for ads.  Tomorrow we will create products and advertisements for them.

Once the day was complete I got to go home for a few hours.  Fortunately the new schedule has a 30 minute break for lunch during the third lesson, so I'm more energetic at the end of the day.  Although it's far from the end of the day at 4 pm.  Three days a week I have a private lesson on the Upper West Side beginning at 6:45, and then I have the same advanced group I've had four days a week for the past five weeks, from 8-10.  I enjoy the students, I am earning my stay in this city, and I'm able to be healthy and write.

When I walked up from the underground following a long day of work, I felt and saw the forces blowing through the trees, swirling everywhere around everybody.  I removed my headphones, walked a little out of the way to a pathway where I was sheltered by a canopy and could see the leaves above me, and enjoyed something that's not only free, but also one of the greatest gifts from the cosmic sea: the sound of life's winds in the trees.

Pizza

A week ago I was very hungry and didn't want to cook, so I went to the pizza shop next door to my building.  I ordered two slices, and then handed the woman, Olga, three dollars in coins.  She counted them and said, "Three dollars."  I nodded my head and agreed.  This went on for a little while until I realized in my post-teaching fatigue that two slices cost five dollars, and they only accepted cash.  I had money, but no cash.  She smiled and said, "You pay next time.  I know you.  Don't worry about it."  That's the first time that's ever happened to me in New York.

The other day I grabbed a slice, paid extra for the other time, and then noticed this old woman walking around, but for some reason I saw what I imagined she looked like thirty years ago.

I looked in the mirror earlier and saw my face when I first arrived at college, covered in pimples and anxiety, fearful about the future.

Today I daydreamed a little in class and imagined that my students were fifty years older, and they were cute in an old-age sort of way.  Then I looked at them with these new eyes, having imagined them old and wrinkled, just as they should be some day.  Having seen them old, I saw them as they are now and they all looked a hundred times more beautiful, youthful and stunning than I had thought before I did my little imagination experiment.

You're younger than you think.

'76

Memory lane...

Thoughts swirl through the mind...

I slept with the stars up in the sky overhead last night.  Someone needed my bed, so I grabbed my trusty sleeping bag/pad and truly stargazed on my back for the first time since I moved back East.  "Firefly, Spirit, Dreamer..."

I woke up before sunrise, and then again when the sun was high in the sky.

Breakfast with friends, a very tall waterfall, a lake, and a visit to a friend in his new house with his first child, a son.  He showed me around his home and his land, and then I drove straight from central New York, the land of my grandmother's ancestors and a university we know well, to the island of Manhattan.

I'm remembering eight years ago, having returned from a 4th of July in the NJ suburbs, to my friends' empty apartment in Brooklyn.  I would begin my first full week in NYC alone in that apartment, without anyone to meet up with.  The apartment was very hot, noisy, sticky, and infested with various vermin.  I was in New York, that place with the reputation and so on, and I didn't know anyone because all of my roommates were out of town.  I remember that I read a few books, took walks, and took notes.

Since then I've grown and learned while living around the world for a period equal to what it would have taken to get two more college educations.

Now, looking from my apartment, I don't think the aesthetics of my living situation have improved greatly!  That's not to say it hasn't at times, but given my tendency to go many places, I often find myself in interesting circumstances here and there.  Then again, I do have a nice view from this window to some trees and some skies, and the overall location is much better, at least for my preferences.

I'd always wondered what it would be like to live in Manhattan, amongst many other places.  Now I know.  I am always learning.

I wonder where independence will lead next...

learning centers and blue skies with green leaves and laughing people sharing food

Stars, fireflies, frogs, trees, music

Class

Today I completed my first round of courses in Manhattan.  I transferred there a month ago after seven months in the Bronx.  I am happy to report that I have enjoyed new growth through new experiences and people.

The first class, from 9-10 am, was "American Ways."  I've been teaching an advanced group of about twenty students (usually sixteen on any given day) about American society, values, history and government to start the day five days a week for five weeks.  The class would normally be eight weeks, but they're doing a massive overhaul of the curriculum in midtown starting next week, so we had to go a little faster than normal.  Then again, I'd never taught this class or at this branch before, so it was all new to me.  Luckily, I have studied government and traveled around America before, so I knew the material like the back of my hand.

I had a very good time and learned much about other cultures and what that meant about my culture, and, more importantly, how my individual life is connected to the larger life everywhere.  Every day we talked about some important aspect of American history, culture and values, and then reflected it from the viewpoint of each student, all of whom represented a unique country, culture and human experience.  I was very pleased to once again have a class of people from around the world, but with much more diversity than any other school before.  Every morning I have been privileged to go to work in Manhattan and converse with people from Western and Eastern Europe, Eastern and Central Asia, and Central and South America.  I had my first ever German students, which is interesting because I already know so many German people because of my sister.  I also had Spanish, French and Russian students, representing three lands whose people I'd met many times before while traveling, but never as a formal instructor.  I had had students from Ecuador, Brazil and Venezuela before, but never so many.  I also was happy to meet my first students from Colombia and India.  Even though I'd begun my travels in India, I'd never taught anyone from India in a class room.  I'd had students from Krygyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan before, but now I also know a pair of sisters from Kazakhstan.

The table of contents from the American Ways book by Maryane Kearny Datesman, JoAnn Crandall, and Edward N. Kearny is as follows:

  1.  Culture of the United States
  2.  Traditional American Values & Beliefs
  3.  The American Religious Heritage
  4.  The Frontier Heritage
  5.  Heritage of Abundance
  6.  The World of American Business
  7.  Government and Politics in the U.S.
  8.  Ethnic and Racial Diversity in the U.S.
  9.  Education in the U.S.
10.  How Americans Spend Their Leisure Time
11.  The American Family
12.  American Values at the Crossroads

We talked about all of that.  A very stimulating and deep way to start the day.  To be honest, some of the students loved to express their opinions, viewpoints and knowledge, whereas others weren't as comfortable with their abilities to express or even the act of expressing and participated by listening, although I tried to call on each person as much as possible.  I understood that it was the first class of the morning, and many of the students, as in San Francisco, are on student visas, and come as much as necessary to serve their other purposes.  I don't blame them.  I've traveled.  I understand.  Even so, sometimes I paired them up or put them in trios, and they seemed to express themselves and communicate much more than in the group setting, although I would make each trio report on their discussion, just like I'd done with the pairs in San Francisco. 

The next class focused more on the present perfect, present perfect continuous, past perfect, reported speech, tag questions, future, future perfect and so on.  They were a smaller group of about ten students, although only a handful of them had begun the class five weeks ago, as many had gone back to their countries or just arrived.  This class was ten people from various continents and cultures.  Although most students were college age or in their early 20's, we have had quite the age range.  We began with a retired Spanish man who kindly gave me a pin with the official seal from the armory he worked at in Spain as a thank you gift when he left the class during his vacation in America.  As I read that sentence, I can see his wonderfully confused face he happily exhibited with a smile so often during grammar lessons where I had to differentiate tenses we have in English that they don't have in his language.  After he left, a retired Spanish woman joined the class, and is going to San Francisco to visit her son tomorrow.  She asked me about where she should go.  I was happy to give her some honest directions.  One of a handful of students who were there most every day the entire five weeks was a middle-aged doctor born in Siberia, educated in Austria and practicing in Sri Lanka, but on his way to California.  I thought he had quit the class when he stopped showing up this week, but he returned today for the final exam after a pleasant visit to Boston and Harvard.  He said he enjoyed both, but especially the latter because he had grown up in a university town to academic parents in Siberia.  I had always thought there was something about his accent, since he'd claimed he was from Sri Lanka.  He seemed like a pretty happy person.  On the other hand, there was a twelve-year old who surprised us all by strolling in with a school backpack a few days into the class, and then answered more correct questions than anyone else because he was younger and more accustomed to studying and learning new information, especially languages.  Some of them are leaving in a few days, and others have already started new lives as working members of my society.

Speaking of which, the class after that was a one-hour advanced group of about sixteen to twenty students from most of the continents.  All but a few students were in their 20's, and the others were in their 30's.  They felt like a group of my peers, but none of them were peers from my society growing up, only currently as temporary residents of perhaps the most iconic international city in the world.  We used a book with listening exercises called Academic Listening Encounters: Life in Society by Kim Sanabria.  Once again, eight weeks were covered in five weeks.  The focus of this class was American social issues and how society has been changing.  I had to talk about many subjects that most of the students seemed reasonably comfortable discussing.  I give the authors of these text books credit: they sure know how to stimulate conversations:

Belonging to a Group:
Marriage, Family and the Home
The Power of the Group

Gender Roles:
Growing Up Male or Female
Gender Issues Today

Media and Society:
Mass Media Today
The Influence of the Media

Breaking the Rules:
Crime and Criminals
Controlling Crime

Changing Societies:
Cultural Change
Global Issues

They were very surprised today because I forgot to tell them there was a test, because I didn't know there was a test.  I think they had sent me an e-mail with many documents at the start of the course, but we hadn't had a midterm like the other class, so I hadn't thought about a test.  Especially since most of what we did was listen and discuss, whereas the test was mostly vocabulary.  Then again, it worked out even better this way because pretty much all of them aced it.  That means they'd learned it honestly without cramming.  That means they're more likely to remember it in real life.  As for me, I learned a lot about the way people's day to day lives are affected by their societies.  I also learned from their outsider's views of my society.  I realized amazing things about this country simply by expressing what I already knew and had experienced.  I knew it was a good text book, because most people I know have talked about these topics, which means many humans can relate to them and learn through them.

After quickly grading my third round of tests, I had my two-hour private lesson with the two beginner-intermediate Brazilian women, an architect and a dentist on vacation away from the World Cup.  But that will continue next week.

As for the students who graduated to some new level of life, whether they're continuing at the school or going back to their home country, I know I will miss many of their smiles, personalities, thoughtful insights and, especially, their senses of humor.  There will be new ones.  That's the journey we're all on.

The journey has always been going, but the first true milestone of my adult journey began when I moved to New York City, having just graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca.  I am visiting tomorrow for a reunion with friends and 4th of July celebration.  I haven't visited since I saw my writing professor and a few friends two years ago on my way west.

I remember when I first moved to New York and didn't have any idea how to network beyond speaking to people I met.  My friend had a Radiohead DVD on his shelf named Meeting People is Easy, which was about when they first became famous.  It seemed like they had a lot of pressure.  As for me, all I was really concerned about was how I was going to make a life as an adult, especially in such an intimidating city.  I wanted to live and tell stories, but I knew that would only happen if I shared with people.  As with many messages in life, the perfect words came at the right time.  I'll always be inspired by the liner notes, something I learned much about in my 20's:

"If you have been rejected many times in your life, then one more rejection isn't going to make much difference. If you're rejected, don't automatically assume it's your fault. The other person may have several reasons for not doing what you are asking her to do: none of it may have anything to do with you. Perhaps the person is busy or not feeling well or genuinely not interested in spending time with you.  Rejections are part of everyday life. Don't let them bother you. Keep reaching out to others. When you begin to receive positive responses then you are on the right track. It's all a matter of numbers. Count the positive responses and forget about the rejections." 

I have had many rejections since then, especially from snooty or simply rude New Yorkers, but that hasn't stopped me from meeting hundreds and hundreds of human beings from many walks of life, all of whom have helped me.  Whether they taught me something or allowed me to teach them something, they have served.

This evening I continued this practice of meeting people, using time to give and accept gifts of life energy, knowledge and understanding.

Everyone has their own way of saying this, but many people have told me this is the best skill you can hone in life:

Expressing what's inside, also known as Chung Fu, to those around you, and understanding what's inside of you by listening to the voices that are true, so that we see, feel and know the glow of our flowing, growing show.

Delicious

A woman from Spain told me about the risk she took in starting her own restaurant decades ago, and how it was so difficult at the beginning because they were worried about money and had to borrow from her parents, but then she succeeded, has a happy family and a wonderful life.  She's retired now and planning to see the world.

The topic was "something you have been successful at" and the difficulties overcome.

Then she gave me some life lessons, for example, finding something you didn't even know you were looking for.  You can't always achieve everything you attempt, but life often leads you to something even better.

One cannot always plan, but sometimes, one can "make it happen," an expression I was able to teach her.

We began the lesson talking about restaurants, and her most recent food adventure in New York City was a place next to the Cervantes Institute, named after the writer of the "first modern novel."  They call it that because it was the long fictional European story that did not celebrate romantic questers, but instead made fun of them.  Honestly, I thought it was a boring novel, a few too many centuries old for my taste.  I understood the lesson of the windmills though: why turn energy sources moved by necessary invisible forces into monsters and attack them, especially when there are plenty more exciting, rewarding and useful adventures to be lived and enjoyed?  Eventually Mr. Quixote learns and teaches that "he who travels much and reads much sees much and learns much."  Later, when he explains the necessity of poetry in a man's soul, people realize he's not as stupid as they originally thought he was.  I think his spirit was spot on, he just needed to relax when it came to lancing things.

As for first books, Chung Fu is making it happen.  The student reminded me, though, that serving the customer and making them feel cared for is the most important ingredient, because that's not only how you stay in business feeding people, but also the whole reason you do anything.

Enjoy your July!