Walking has saved my life and restored my serenity more times than I can count. When times have come that throw off life’s balance and inner peace, I know I have not walked enough. Walking has always been part of my life’s journey, a way to constantly look around at the world each day, no [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Beyond Gotham'
Redeemer Lutheran’s Staying Power
October 5th, 2011 · 6 Comments · Beyond Gotham
When we behold a beautiful historic house of worship, we may well find a sturdy and durable congregation that has also withstood the test of time. Both materials and people become a study in resilience. Redeemer Lutheran Church in Kingston is a sweet and brightly warm church set within the Rondout neighborhood of this Hudson [...]
Tags: architecture·art·historic preservation·Hudson Valley·spiritual places·stone
Stained-Glass Glory in Chicago
July 11th, 2011 · 3 Comments · Beyond Gotham, Columns and Features
The names Healy and Millet likely will never be as well-known as Tiffany. But to those who look up at two stained-glass ceilings in the building that housed Chicago’s grand first central public library, George Healy and Louis Millet created an artwork that is dazzling, like Louis Tiffany’s, in that “can’t take my eyes off [...]
The Glorious Palette of Spring Green
May 19th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Beyond Gotham
The verb “spring” originates from the Old English “springan,” which means to burst forth or leap. The noun for the season, fittingly, derives from that term. Each year at this time, spring enchants us with the bursting forth of blossoms and flowers – pinks, purples, whites, yellows, reds – from what which lay dormant in [...]
Tags: meditations·nature·seasons
Messages From a Snowy Landscape
February 14th, 2011 · 8 Comments · Beyond Gotham
How often have you heard the phrase “sick of winter” lately? It’s a phrase on many lips. As the frigid, single-digit temperatures and biting wind of recent days finally are giving way to the feeling-utterly-balmy 40s and the beginnings of melt – the inexorable winding into spring – take a long look and walk through [...]
Wal-Mart Will Not Build at Battlefield
January 26th, 2011 · 4 Comments · Be a Mindful Activist, Beyond Gotham
Preservationists today hailed the decision by Wal-Mart to drop its plans to build a supercenter within the original boundaries of the Wilderness Battlefield in Virginia. In an unexpected move early Wednesday in Virginia’s Orange Circuit Court, Wal-Mart revealed it was abandoning its proposal to construct a store on the property. The retailer said it was [...]
Present-Moment Thankfulness
November 26th, 2010 · 10 Comments · Beyond Gotham
In the book The Tao of Daily Life is a parable about the present moment. As he is chased by a tiger, a man comes to a cliff and escapes by climbing a vine down it. Upon climbing downward, he sees a tiger at the bottom of the cliff. As if things aren’t difficult enough, [...]
Tags: meditations·nature·seasons
A Tranquil Patch of the Meadowlands
November 10th, 2010 · 10 Comments · Beyond Gotham
It’s the kind of place you’d never guess is peaceful. It’s where the great Atlantic Flyway of migrating birds meets the New Jersey Turnpike of commuters, truckers, and travelers. On one side is the turnpike, its several lanes on each side heading north and south, an endless whizzing-by parade of cars, trucks carrying goods bound [...]
Tags: meditations·nature·trails
Going Dutch at Kingston’s Wiltwyck Inn
October 22nd, 2010 · 6 Comments · Beyond Gotham
Call it Old Europe and the Dutch colonies meet the early 20th century. The Wiltwyck Inn is a petite building, by no means grand. This two-and-a-half story structure, tucked among plenty of historic buildings in the Uptown Stockade neighborhood of Kingston, conjures up faraway places and times long ago, thanks to its personality and out-of-the-ordinary, [...]
Tags: architecture·historic preservation·Hudson Valley·landmarks·women
The Trotters at Goshen’s Post Office
September 10th, 2010 · 10 Comments · Beyond Gotham
In today’s world, Georgina Klitgaard’s painting might have sparked carping and a slew of talk-radio rant that it was wasteful government spending. In the late 1930s in the town of Goshen, N.Y., however, it absolutely delighted many of the town’s citizens. All over the United States we have public art remaining today that is courtesy [...]
Tags: art·Hudson Valley·women
Encountering the “Three-Legged Buddha”
August 19th, 2010 · 5 Comments · Beyond Gotham
Like the Tibetan Buddhist tradition that it evokes, Zhang Huan’s “Three-Legged Buddha” is an artwork of mystery and complexity. It captures life, death, and rebirth. The enormous sculpture is strong and muscular, yet fragile; seemingly dominated yet defiant. Is the key figure within it collapsing, or is it arising? These are the qualities and questions [...]
Meditation: An Egret and the Gulf Oil Spill
June 9th, 2010 · 8 Comments · Be a Mindful Activist, Beyond Gotham
To whom does the Earth belong? If you have any doubt about it, spend time at a wildlife refuge. Even 15 minutes, let alone a couple of hours, at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey tell the answer: The Earth belongs to all creatures, not just man. Hundreds of sandpipers gather [...]
The Wilderness: An “Endangered Place”
May 21st, 2010 · No Comments · Be a Mindful Activist, Beyond Gotham
The land on which thousands died in the cause to end slavery and keep the United States together cannot speak for itself. For generations, people have walked the land of the Wilderness Battlefield, remembering on this hallowed ground the harsh and brutal battle the Union and Confederacy fought in May, 1864. Now, a new generation [...]
Discovering Architecture All Around Us
May 1st, 2010 · 2 Comments · Beyond Gotham
To an Idaho student, a waterfalls in her region looks like a skyscraper that’s thin at the top and has cascades rippling downward toward the bottom, much like the tower at 1 Wall Street in New York City. To someone else, the sight of an egg shell evokes a dome, a delicate and yet strong [...]
Tags: architecture·nature
A Date With the Blossoms In New Paltz
April 21st, 2010 · 6 Comments · Beyond Gotham
Imagine that you were walking in a city park, on a campus, or along a street, and suddenly you see that someone has set up a dozen original paintings of Claude Monet. The masterpieces are before your eyes. Along your path, you see “Impression, Sunrise,” “Winter At Giverny,” and “The Water-Lily Pond,” among many others. [...]
Talking: Architecture and Spirituality
February 17th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Be a Mindful Activist, Beyond Gotham
To Sara Sweeney, bricks, concrete, and glass are expressions of our soul. Each building, in the architect’s view, is a statement of us, our relationship to each other, and our connection, or disconnection, with the Earth. A registered architect, Sweeney has had a 19-year career reflecting her passion and commitment to sustainable design, green building [...]
Tags: architecture·green energy·international·spiritual places
Wilderness Wal-Mart: A Day in Court
February 5th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Be a Mindful Activist, Beyond Gotham
The Battle of the Wilderness, one of the crucial turning points on the Union’s path to victory in the Civil War, encompassed three days of horrendous combat in May, 1864. Those fighting to keep part of the original battlefield safe from a Wal-Mart and big-box retail development hope their own campaign will live to see [...]
Walking With the Haitian People
January 15th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Be a Mindful Activist, Beyond Gotham
The images are almost beyond belief, the damage and the suffering beyond comprehension. An earthquake gauged at 7.0, the first rumble striking Tuesday evening and lasting at least 35 seconds, destroyed an entire swath of Haiti, particularly much of its capital and largest city – Port-au-Prince. The scenes have been horrific. Bodies are lying strewn [...]
Tags: architecture·cities·international
New Year’s Meditation On Snow
January 5th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Beyond Gotham
The snow is falling slowly, in its own time, on the evergreen. All is quiet. The New Year presents new possibilities and new questions. The possibilities are uncharted, the questions unanswered. Still, the present moment is enough. What if we just reside in it, stop the running thoughts, and simply behold the surroundings? Take a [...]
Tags: meditations·nature
The “Fairest” Land: The Lake District
September 28th, 2009 · 10 Comments · Beyond Gotham
Beautiful landscape calls us to dream and to wander, to take paths unknown. In it, we fix our eyes both on the distant horizons and on the tiniest details at our side. It reaches into our souls, rewards and soothes us. It is the Earth’s embrace. Standing in an open field in England’s Lake District [...]
Tags: England·historic preservation·international·nature·spiritual places·stone·trails
