Walking around New York City last week with my sister and niece forced me to pause and look up at buildings I have come to recognize only from eye level. Take the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower. I can’t count the number of times I have gone to the Flatiron District and never saw it because I hardly ever looked up. It was the refreshingly bright gold of the cupola...

At some point yesterday (Saturday), I noticed that my subscriptions that had been posted on Saturday had been changed to Friday. I didn’t think much of it until my Soulful Sundays post ended up date stamped March 19th instead of 20th. And I know I posted well past midnight. I checked my time settings and realized that WP didn’t automatically update after the time change last week. I’m not sure...

In the summer of 1999 or 2000, my friend, Cathi, invited me to see a documentary film she said she knew I’d love. I had never heard about the Buena Vista Social Club before we got to the theater but I wasn’t disappointed. From the opening scenes, I was transported to Havana. And the music struck a chord in my soul. I was so moved, I watched the documentary with...

I love amaryllis and bought several bulbs two Christmases ago. After they bloomed, I left them on the window sill, watering them occasionally. Several days ago, I noticed something reddish-brown against the blinds. I was shocked to see that a bud was beginning to peek through. The plant hadn’t bloomed in more than a year. Excitedly, I grabbed my camera and began documenting each day’s progress. Here’s day #4 As...

Whenever my friend, Anneli, comes to town, we always meet for lunch at a different restaurant. This time, I told her to come uptown to Harlem so we could try Red Rooster, one of the newest additions to my neighborhood. One of award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson‘s restaurants, Red Rooster, features American cuisine with a nod to the rest of the world. I knew dinner would have been impossible without a reservation...

I have been unable to look at the images that have been coming out of Japan since the  magnitude 8.9 earthquake and 23-foot tsunami devastated the north eastern portion of that country. They’re too surreal. That the people I know, former co-workers, who have returned to work at headquarters in Tokyo and their loved ones are okay, have brought little consolation. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must...

Why do we need all those lights, my 12 year old niece asked as we walked towards Times Square. Frankly, I didn’t have a ready answer. Like most people who live in New York City and have family and friends everywhere, I’ve come to accept that from time to time, someone will be asking to use my fouton. This past weekend, it was my sister. Her 12 year old, Justin...

Whenever I travel, I always opt for the window seat so I can enjoy the scenery.  But for most of this flight over the U.S., thick clouds prevented me from seeing the terrain below. So I decided to look at them instead of reading or snoozing. Each time I looked, the pattern and thickness had changed. Finally, it covered the land below.  And I remembered the line, I really don’t...

A few weeks ago, I was speaking with my 80 year old aunt who, except for a spell in Canada, has lived in the U.K. since 1954 – way before I was born. I’m not sure how the conversation veered towards her trip from Kingston, Jamaica to London but for the first time I heard that she and 16 others had traveled on the Reina del Pacifico, the ocean liner...

Sundays, for me, are usually lazy days. I putter, lounge, read, snooze and, of course, listen to music. What I listen to depends on my mood. Sometimes, it’s soothing jazz. Other times, it’s music that gets me on my feet – I just love to dance. For this week’s Soulful Sundays post, I want to share the work of a musician who has become one of my favorites. I was...