it's about time.

today i'm in brooklyn. sitting in the atlas cafe. having been directed here by abbey for coffee and sandwiches, i wandered in a few hours ago, wondering how i would spend my free day in NYC. i found myself deep in the heart of an unknown world. the music that's playing... zippy sounds of trumpets and banjos and maybe saxophones... is nostalgic and sentimental, just like my romanticized ideas of this grand city. hours later, i'm still here, watching the people that come and go. dwelling with the presence of all of the stories and faces that have brought me here.

along with the regulars who called her by name, i was charmed by the quiet but deliberate confidence of the dark skinned, heavily mascara-ed woman behind the counter. i asked for a bagel with cream cheese, tomato, and pesto (yes, it was divinity). she looked at me intently and whispered something that i didn't quite catch. i leaned in. "what kind of bagel?" she repeated. oh! wheat, please.

moments later i take my place at a table next to a small old woman who was reading a newspaper. she is unbothered by my presence. i open a book gifted to me by my good friends jeff and jesse eat, pray, love and read... "the resting place of the mind is the heart. The only thing the mind hears all day is clanging bells and noise and argument, and all it wants is quietude. The only place the mind will ever find peace is inside the silence of the heart. That's where you need to go..." the narrator remembers learning to meditate at an ashram in india. her words invite me to rest in the beauty that is so close and personal. light reflecting off of the wet pavement and into my window, highlighting the aged wood of my table and the pages that i read. two italian women come and ask to share our table. the woman and i make room. they sit speaking beautiful words that hold meaning i can only imagine. italy... the place that the narrator of this book has just come from. india... the place where she now pursues the divine. as i leave, i am not surprised to see a hindu-inspired elephant painted on the wall. outside is a mural. i recognize the images as hindu, and the words as reflecting truth that i am reading: "giving is receiving." "eye know self." i chuckle and wonder... i am surrounded. delighted in intimate anonymity.

i decided to rename my blog. you may recognize the lyrics. they come from the indigo girls, who sing the soundtrack of my life.