Riverside Park

Enter at 116th street and Riverside Avenue in Manhattan.  I walked there this past week.  Yellow leaves on the tree.  A view of the Hudson.  Soccer fields, children's playgrounds, baseball fields beneath you.  Joggers, mothers with strollers, students.  All very well spaced.  You have tranquility and a sense of belonging.  Water, trees, people playing and contemplating.  This is what an urban park should be like.

Battery Park City

One of my favorite walks in New York City starts at Battery Park.  Wonderful views of Governor's Island, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  The harbor and water are stunning.  Keep on walking west and a paved walkway with gardens appears as you walk along the residential buildings of Battery Park City.  I like buildings made of red, tan, and white stone and granite.  They seem more monumental, more artistic, more like a sculpture.  One of my favorite sculptures there is a life size lawn sculpture of a female cat upright, wearing a dress,  hand in hand with a male cat, just like characters from a fairy tale.

I had lunch at Kaidou, a japanese restaurant, overlooking the Marina with Bento Boxes that are just 13.00.  The service and surroundings were excellent.  After that, I kept walking north until it was time to catch the train home.  How lucky we are that we were made with legs so that we could feel the pleasure from walking! A wonderful day.

Muscoot Farm Park

This is another one of my favorite walks in Westchester.  The Yellow Trail.  It's about 3 miles.  It takes about 90 minutes to 2 hours depending on how many times you stop to rest to just look at the trees.  In the Autumn, the ground is covered with golden, yellow leaves.  Around you, are trees that are red, yellow, orange.  Such a bright yellow, orange and red also.  With the sun and the scrunching of the leaves on the ground, this spot is wonderful.  You finish by coming to picture perfect meadow and a blue sky that just stretches.  The forest surrounds you and enfolds you, bringing you back to life.

Autumn in Westchester

J,
Yesterday was a wonderful Autumn Day.  The leaves were a brilliant gold, yellow, orange and fiery crimson in Westchester.  I thought about our phone conversation and wanted to thank you for telling me about different health conditions people feel that are biological in nature and not always spawned by societal stresses.  That was pretty amazing to me.

What is also amazing are the forests in Westchester.  One could walk for hours beneath these gold and crimson trees, on a floor bed of crisp, crunchy, clean, sun faded pale, tan leaves and not see another house or human being.  Totally zen like, beautiful, peaceful and renewing.  Wonderful, you know what I mean?

Beginnings

This is a blog to celebrate our friendships.  Write posts on this blog as if you were writing to a very dear friend.  The content of the posts should be to share your appreciation of having the friendship because a telephone call,  a cup of tea together, a walk shared provided you with happiness.

A lot of times, those moments come and they pass and only later, one realizes the wondeful feeling those moments left in you, like footprints in the sand.  This is a blog to capture those moments as if they were literary photographs. 

This is a blog so you could look back at those "literary photographs" and share them with others.  Post a note of thoughts to a person who shared a kindness with you and pass this URL to them.  Wouldn't it be great if this blog was a series of notes to friends who in some way knew at least one other person who wrote on this blog?   In that way we could see how we're all soul refreshers of each other.  One kindness spawns another.