This morning I re-visited the first neighborhood that I lived in when I moved to New York City twenty-one years ago with my 14-year-old daughter. I moved from the east to the west side, three years later, and never went back to my previous stomping grounds, but this morning I did! A flood of memories, but one ‘only in New York’ flashed into my mind’s eye with a chuckle.
On the corner of Lexington and 91st, in the midst of a torrential downpour, I had been standing with my green banana leaf umbrella, in a huge brown faux fur coat and my golden retriever, Julius, waiting to cross the street, as car after car splashed puddles all over me. An artist friend of mine had been sitting in the coffee shop on the corner, watching me, and unbeknownst to me, taking photos.
I was presented later with a small portrait of the event, and later, this portrait became his inspiration to use me again as a model in a painting that was an advertisement that was posted on all of the buses in New York. I could stand on any corner and watch myself fly by and say out loud ‘There I go!’ to which most New Yorkers simply thought I was another poor soul who had lost her marbles in this great city.
All of this from one memory, from one decision to take a walk! Our lives, our minds are such incredible treasure chests.