Forgot password?
A lifestyle blog by Daiken Nelson on The Whole 9

Buddhist Priest, Yoga Practitioner & Instructor, Mystic, Photographer, Writer, Web & Graphic Designer, Traveler, Beekeeper, Honorary South Bronx Puerto Rican, Citizen of The World. And now Bloggeur.

View Daiken Nelson’s Portfolio

Same As It Ever Was…Same As It Ever Was…

April 19, 2009
4 Comments (see all)

time isn’t holding us, time isn’t after us
time isn’t holding us, time doesn’t hold you back

The Talking Heads, Once In A Lifetime

I am sitting in a café on W. 8th Street in NYC. I am drinking Yerba Maté for the first time in a very long time. It is a bright, Sunny day. I have been toddling around, taking in the sights & sounds of the area between Union Square & Washington Square Parks.

In the last week, I have traveled from NY to LA, then 3 days later, LA to NY. Waking up on one coast then go to sleep on the other. From Long Island Sound to the Pacific Ocean. Then back again. Late Spring to early Summer. Then back again.

I arrived back in NYC 1 week short of the 12-year Anniversary of my first move here. In my new job here, I am working with people I have known for those dozen years, frequenting places I worked & traveled back then. Dejà vu, all over again….

The illusion of time and space. I find myself in familiar surroundings, yet things are different. The Goodwill Store on 8th Street is closed; replaced by a travel gadget boutique. Washington Square Park is ripped up so that the City can move the fountain 5 feet so that is lines up with the Arch & Fifth Avenue.

Gone are Friends and Family in these 12 years. And yet, something continues to flow.

From the beginningless beginning to the endless end. Moment to moment, flows on, in both directions. It is the only thing that is real, this moment, the only thing we “have”.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding from Four Quartets

I am Lucky. I am Blessed. I have, at least at this Time in my Life, good Karma unfolding. 

 

Leave a comment
4 comments (see all)
RSS Feed

  1. awaken2sun

    Daiken…I sense a peace in your voice and it’s great to hear. I will look forward to seeing you here or there…I’ll be in NY mid-May.

  2. joncoffelt

    As long as we understand that where we are that is where we are supposed to be. We are in the moment. We are in the right place and time.

  3. miltt

    Daiken, I had the same experience some years ago when I returned to my native environs after an eighteen year sojourn through the country. Little on the surface was the same, yet my inner balance was restored by returning to the place itself. Restaurants I had patronized had disappeared. Stores I had shopped in had new names or new functions, yet, when the sun rose, it landed on the exact spot it had the day and month of the year I was born. I orient my life to the sun and the sea. They were not the same in other places. The sea moved to the opposite side when I faced the same direction. The seasons were somewhat different. Even dusk and dawn came at different times than they had at home.

    Dorothy was right. There is no place like home, even if the people and buildings change as they do over almost 3/4ths of a century.

    Don’t worry about the fountain. My granddaughter took care of that in a scathing debraiding of Mayor Bloomberg on live tv a few months ago. It was so fun to watch a fifteen year old excoriate that pompous windbag about what is important in the city. What a waste of money for something no one but an engineer or photographer would notice or give a shit about. And the photographer would be just as happy to capture the slight skew of the land. Imperfection makes for the best photo captures.

    Lollipops and unicorns

  4. catherinedaly

    Yes, when you return to old haunts they continue to flow but things evolve…Upon my trip home to Florida in November for my beloved Aunt Ameila’s funeral my family went to a friend’s restaurant in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. I use to be able to go there and see every one I knew…I would walk in and every one would call my name. The familiar faces were comforting. Of course, when I went to the funeral I saw people I knew from different phases in my life-some were still the same-some had different husbands and some had different faces-yet when I went to this restaurant and ordered my dinner I found myself getting up out of my chair and wandering around to see if I knew anyone-and it was certainly different than from years before. The environment stays the same-it is like a stage set from Saturday Night Live-they just change the vignettes every so often-but eventually people return to see their old familiar faces.

Leave a Comment

You must be a member and be logged in to leave a comment. Click here to log in or join.