All Hallow's Eve

On the 31st of October this year, I started my day attending the farewell memorial service for the great and beloved teacher, pastor and leader, Dr. Lonnie McCleod, together with Karen Smith.

Like the 100's gathered at the Church of the Living Hope on 138th Street and Edge avenue, I too love Lonnie, feel close to him, and greatly admire him.

The service was superb. Karen pointed out "Like Lonnie." The remark interested me. I bet the ceremonies at our passings in fact ARE like us.

Afterward Karen and I caught up over a shared sandwich on a park bench that seemed to be dropped from heaven just for this moment, for these feelings, for this pause. Here's the bench:

Later in the evening, the kids (I mean all "kids" of the family) had a little fun getting ready for Halloween. A couple of the pictures are from our next door neighbors too.

World Peace Blessing

My family and I participated in a World Peace Blessing on Tuesday night, October 13 at 10 pm.

We took the 7 train to and from a church center in Queens

Frone is away at school, so he was linked to the same Blessing by satellite while participating in Colorado (his pictures are from when he was home with us on his birthday).

Here are a couple of pictures of our little adventure

Book progress

Last week I spent some days in the lovely area of Bowie, Maryland, to work at the company that will print the book I'm working on for its October 1 debut in Washington D.C.

My time there was intense, lively, and exciting. The combination of extreme pace, and unforgiving demand for near perfect accuracy gives the world and work of a big printing company an undercurrent of drama and energy.

The creep of desperation and indispensable need for respect and deep cooperation creates a solidarity among collaborators that can forge emotional closeness in the group, even in a very short time to work together.

I am grateful for my time and experience on this part of the torrential, editorial waters into which I've been tossed.

Here are a couple of pictures:

A week for teaching in Camberg, Germany

I enjoyed a wonderful few days in the beautiful area of Bad Camberg, Germany, 40 minutes northwest of Frankfurt am Main.

I taught about 80 or so young people from the world over, but mostly from Europe. My content included spiritual teaching, and practical life teaching (which are pretty much the same thing, aren't they?)

Here are some pictures of my time teaching there. Sorry, there's a bunch of me in it, but please enjoy the young folks and the little bit of nature. The students were from the US, Canada, Australia, and from all of Europe East and West.

Spain and Luxembourg

I was in Sevilla, Spain from July 31, 2009 until August 3 after which I flew to Luxembourg, and there spent 7 days until flying back to New York on August 10.

In Spain I met with a number of people privately, spent a bit of time in public meetings, and attended the final match of the Peace Cup, hosted this year by Real Madrid. (Aston Villa (Birmingham) defeated Juventus Turin in penalty kicks after two overtime periods.)

I only took a couple of pictures there in Sevilla
(By the way, you can click on any slide show to go to the pictures yourselves, download them or whatever.)



On the 3rd of August I flew and bussed to Luxembourg where I spent a week, visiting families, and holding a number of private meetings for projects of various description.

Here are the pictures from my Luxembourg visit, but after that I isolate a couple of pictures so as to provide explanation:



From this picture forward (in the slide show) is the oldest church in Luxembourg (pre-dating the 7th century). It is in Petrus Park:





























In this picture here below I am pointing to Germany (about 100 yards away)






























Here I am in the back yard of Professor Bernard Zamaron. He walked me to the back gate of this property, pointed across the way (a few feet) and calmly said "That is France." I asked, "What's out your front yard? Belgium?"































Jewish Americans gave their lives alongside their Christian brothers on European soil in WWII.

A Week for Teaching in Wyoming

On July 27 I flew to Jackson Hole, Wyoming courtesy of the Westchester-based International Leadership Training Program (ILTP). My original itinerary (via Denver) was re routed when the first outbound leg collapsed. I flew via O' Hare. The travel was simple and easy enough.

My ignorance of the geography aided the cause of my jaw drop thrill upon arriving to land in Jackson Hole. The Grant Tetons lining the flight path and rising up above our descent was breath-taking. This taken breath was never returned, even for a moment throughout the time of my stay.

The photo show below begins with the landing runway. Beside it rises up snow capped peaks. The training locale was in Idaho, over an hour away in the Targhee National Forest Preserve.

This is an area of unspeakable beauty. To me it said in every moment "vertical."

As delightful was my discovery of the group I came to teach. As with the terrain, my ignorance aided my delight and sense of wonder. I found myself addressing approximately 30 young people in a mix I'd never seen before that day. Students were young people in their 20's, pausing in the middle of a 2 - 3 year leadership training program for their Summer education summit. Their distinction lay not only in their humble and noble commitment to self-creation, and social improvement, but in their makeup.

These program members were from Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Nepal, Mainland China, Moldova, Japan, United States, Ivory Coast and more. I can only imagine, I learned more than I sought to teach.

Here are a few images from this most blessed week for me.

Pablo and Nancy Marry

We have lived next door to our immediate neighbors for 17 years, Betty Martinez, her mom, and every now and again Betty's brother Pablo. Wonderful family, wonderful neighbors.

On Wednesday, July 8, 2009, Pablo married his new bride Nancy.

Betty hosted a small celebration in her home, and all my family spent the evening together with the new couple.

Here are some pictures