An Abundant Life - A Trip Across The Pond

A number of years ago I met some wonderful people from London who were living in New York. They had lots of friends and lots of fun and they invited me to join them for parties and visits to some very wonderful places. One thing they always said when they spoke about the Atlantic Ocean was to call it the pond. I'm not sure why this is something that is said, but I always thought it was an interesting and somehow funny way to think about a large and mighty ocean.

This past week I went to Long Island City in Queens, and though the trip was under the East River and by subway is a very short trip, when I started writing this blog I thought about the expression the people from London I knew used to say and for some reason it seemed just right. The journey I took that day may have been a quick one from the standpoint of one subway stop to another, but from the way I felt before I went to the way I felt after, it was as if I had been on a much longer adventure.

The reason for the trip was to meet with Dena McCoy who I know through Instagram and our mutual friend Ivonne Camacho who I have written about in these pages before. Dena had written a book titled Greed & Grace which I will be writing more about in the coming weeks, and I had been very interested to hear more about it, but it was for another reason that I first reached out to her. She had been posting music and performances by her daughter, Ava, and the posts and music and performances were so beautiful that I felt as if I needed to send her a message and offer to write about Ava and also Dena in my blog. They are both so talented that I thought they might not be interested in meeting with me because they most likely had lots of people contacting them and very busy lives, but I was honored to have Dena respond with kindness accepting my offer. We made an appointment to meet in person, and that is why I found myself traveling to Queens. I'll be writing more about Dena and Ava and their beautiful creativity soon, but today I'll write a bit about Cafe Henri and the walk I took with Dena to the waterfront after our lovely brunch.

Cafe Henri is right across the street from the Number 7 Subway stop, the first stop in Queens after leaving Grand Central. I was there so quickly that I didn't have time to send Dena a text to say I was on my way as I had planned. The restaurant is lovely and it is described on its website as a little taste of Paris in LIC which it really is. The menu had everything that I love on it, and I chose an old favorite, Steak and Eggs, that I first had years ago on a trip with my Mother from college when we stopped at a truck stop diner along the highway. Ever since that day I've felt like Steak and Eggs was somehow something very special, and I don't often have it. Cafe Henri made a wonderful one, with hollandaise sauce on the egg that was cooked just right the way I like it and steak that was cooked to my preference as well. Hollandaise sauce was something that I learned about the first time when I was visiting with a boyfriend in Hawaii when I was in college. He said he wanted Eggs Benedict and I told him if he had a cookbook I could make it because I can make anything with a cookbook. I hadn't known that it would have all the steps that it did, but it came out perfectly and he was very impressed with me. After that glowing experience I had it again on a trip to New York when a dear old friend took me to the old Four Seasons and they made it right at my table for my asparagus. Having Steak and Eggs and Hollandaise sauce made this brunch not only lovely on that day but brought back so many beautiful memories. It came with home fries and a salad which were lovely too and along with the wonderful conversation and beautiful kind Dena across the table from me, the beautiful surroundings and the wonderful staff I felt like I was truly in another world.

After brunch we walked to the waterfront, a quick few blocks away. The view from Hunter's Point South Park is a very beautiful and special one, with all of the architectural wonder of the Manhattan skyline in full and very close view. As I walked along the walkway and took photographs, for the last one I aimed my camera and hoped for the best. The sunshine was so bright it was difficult to see in my lens, but the views were so stunning and the sky so blue with the most beautiful clouds that I knew something good would appear. I was blessed with a radiant ray of light that shone directly from the sky to the water, a beautiful symbol of that beautiful day, meeting with the beautiful Dena and talking about life and art.

A Meeting With Dena McCoy

At Cafe Henri

1010 50th Avenue

Long Island City, New York

https://cafehenrilic.com

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

 

An Abundant Life - Art Month

Yesterday was the anniversary of the day that I was baptized after I was born again. When I woke up in the morning it was early and the sunlight was so beautiful I had to take a photograph of it. As I've written in these pages before, it's a funny thing for me to look at my life now, in comparison to what it was, and it's been eighteen years filled with so many changes and so many things happening that I feel as if sometimes not only am I a different person, but that I've lived several lives. In a way my life has become completely new, but in another way I've been going through such a deep healing process that I'm being reminded of who I was and who I was always meant to be.

Twenty-one years ago I had the idea that I would start an art and community center, and I went into partnership with someone to do that. As I've written before at different times, the other person was not the right person to do that with in any way and two years after that time I went through a dark night of the soul and God reached into my life and I was born again. That's a big story that I've written about before, and I may write more about it again, but today I want to write about the fact that in 2022 I opened an Art Gallery and community space called YES Gallery and that is where I spent my afternoon on the beautiful day of the anniversary of when I was baptized. 

It's art month in Hoboken, and I took a photograph of the outside of the gallery to post and share with people and to recognize the people who help put this beautiful time of art and celebration together. The Hoboken Department of Cultural Affairs, the Hoboken Business Alliance and Main Street Pops do so much for the community, and by putting this month of celebration together with so many people and businesses and Artists it's creating a feeling of art and creativity throughout the city. There will be more to come with news of events and later this month there's a very special group that has asked to have a very special gathering at the gallery. If you had told me in October of 2004 that I'd be writing this now in October of 2024, it wouldn't have seemed possible. But that's why it's so amazing to share this, because the vision was there all those years ago and even though I was stumbling around I'm the darkness and didn't see my way clearly, God brought it to pass, step by step and inch by inch, row by row as the lovely Pete Seeger song tells us, the garden grows.

YES Gallery

Celebrating Hoboken Art Month

408 6th Street

Hoboken, New Jersey

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Beautiful Launch

I've written about the restaurant Halifax in Hoboken in these pages before, and also the wonderful Chef Seadon Shouse who is the Executive Chef. Every time I visit is such a beautiful experience, and everything and everyone there is always so excellent, kind, warm, friendly and all of the things that make a true hospitality experience a special one.

When there are special events at Halifax, I always like to try to go, and when I heard about the launch of Kingfisher Vol. II, I knew it would be a wonderful evening. I had gone to the launch of the first Kingfisher, a collaboration with Maker's Mark, and the evening was truly memorable. The first Kingfisher launch was later in the year and it was a bit cooler than it is now, and so this time in a way seemed like a wonderful way to celebrate the beginning of autumn with the promise of the cooler weather to come while still having warmer weather to enjoy.

As always, the event was truly beautiful and everything was a delight. They had a special bottle engraver and also hand made cigar rolling along with the wonderful food and specialty cocktails. Each hors d'oeuvres was so special and they all wove together to make such a flavor filled extravagant experience that I am still dreaming about it. The promotional team from Maker's Mark had some very fun and really special gift giveaways, and I was lucky enough to have one of the team members take my photograph so I could post the memory of that really beautiful blessing of an evening.

It's with so much gratitude that I write this blog post, for the team from Maker's Mark and the team at Halifax and all the staff there who always make me feel so welcome. The Artist I had invited to join me that evening said that it was exquisite and I agree with him completely. There is an art to hospitality as there is to culinary art, and Chef Shouse and all the staff at Halifax are truly wonderful Artists in all they do to make every moment so beautiful and so special.

Kingfisher Vol. II Private Selection Event

A Collaboration With Maker's Mark

At Halifax

  225 River Street

Hoboken, New Jersey

https://www.halifaxhoboken.com

Photograph With So Much Gratitude

To The Gorgeous Leona

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Better Days

Someone visited YES Gallery the other day who told me when he walked in that he had walked by and gotten to the corner and then he felt like he had to turn around and walk in the door because he wanted to know what that place was. We talked for a while and he said that he couldn't put it into words but being in the gallery made him feel really good, and then he said, "Like being on a mountaintop with the sunrise, like better days are coming." 

Words like that mean so much to me, because I want people to feel good when they are in YES Gallery. The mission of the gallery is to provide an opportunity for people of all ages and backgrounds to be welcomed and have the experience of a gallery, and when I hear how much people enjoy their time there it makes me feel really happy. 

I say "thanks to God for anything good that I do" all the time when people compliment me on something, and YES Gallery was created and keeps evolving and growing with God's divine help. Visitors always say they feel something special inside and even walking by, and they tell me how beautiful it is and that they like it and feel comfortable. During the time since I first opened the doors I've had so many memorable guests and events, and it's really so beautiful to have all these beautiful memories of people who have shared their lives and words and art and time with me there. 

When this recent visitor described how he felt, I took in his words as the words of a prophet. Mountaintops and sunrises speak volumes about coming out of the valley and out of darkness, and his words "like better days are coming" is something that I think we all need to hear from time to time, even when things are ok. When there is uncertainty in our world as there is now and challenges for every day life, hearing that better days are coming is a reminder that though we may not know exactly how or when or where we're actually headed, it will be a change for the better from where we are now, wherever it is and however we get there.

When I woke up this morning early, I saw the sunrise reflecting in a mirror I have on my windowsill. It's a special mirror that an Artisan made, and I put it in the window because I wanted the sun to reflect on it when it rose. The room where it has a window that faces east, and at different times of the year because of the angle of the window the sun changes slightly in the way it shines through. Seeing the reflection this morning reminded me of the beautiful day when I found the mirror and met the Artisans who created it, and it reminded me that with just a little change in the weather and time a beautiful mirror can take on a special glow, and if I wait and trust and keep on doing the things I feel I must, the things I am hoping for and working towards will begin to glow with a new light as well.

Morning Light

In An Artisans' Mirror

Evening Glow

At YES Gallery

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - YES Blessings

A few weeks ago someone I know stopped by YES Gallery and said that he'd been wanting one of the paintings by Danilo Peguero that he had seen when I first opened in August 2022. He has been telling me for a while that he thinks I have some really wonderful work in the gallery, and when he stopped by he told me that the painting by Danilo had a very special meaning for him.

I love the stories that people share with me that I can share with the Artists about what their work means to someone else. It's really a beautiful thing to be able to share how their work has touched someone else in a powerful way, and it's lovely to be a part of sharing that story when it's someone they have never met and who has never seen their work before walking into YES Gallery. Art has a way of connecting people and bringing people together, in conversation, in emotion, in feeling and experiences of times and places. Each time someone walks into YES Gallery the stories that the Artists tell and the story that I tell through the gallery installation reach new people and begin to create more branches of the stories as they move and grow through new eyes, new experiences, and new responses.

Danilo Peguero is one of the Artists who I've written about in these pages before, and his work was the first focus when I opened the gallery. He painted a portrait of me live at the gallery, an experience that was truly a wonderful blessing, and I've regularly kept two more of his paintings in the gallery since that first grand opening show. People always respond so well to his work because it is so beautiful and so well done. His technique is of the highest excellence, and his intention is to make every painting one that will have lasting impact as work of museum quality. The piece that the Collector of his work chose is one that always has many admirers, and right around the same time that we began discussions about it, someone else arrived in the gallery who was looking for pieces for another Collector and she pointed out that same piece. As the timing worked out, it was the first person who was able to secure it, and the way it happened was such a beautiful experience for me that made it even more of a meaningful and lovely story to share with the Artist.

The painting is a beautiful one and I will miss seeing it, but knowing that it is going to a very happy new home where it will be cherished and loved and admired by even more new eyes who visit and see it is a blessing. This experience was a truly beautiful one, that brought people together in a very deeply meaningful way. It's a blessing that brought so many blessings to me, and also to so many, and helped remind me of how beautiful the world and people can be.

"Hair Coloring Beauty Parlor"

By Danilo Peguero

At YES Gallery

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Another Time

I had been thinking of writing about something else for this week, but then when I was on my way home on Friday night, I saw the Tribute Of Light in the night sky over Manhattan and I realized that with everything else that had been going on in my life, not only were we in September but we were coming up to September 11 and though I had definitely thought about it along with everything else, I hadn't really taken the time to reflect on that time and what had happened in 2001.

Tribute In Light is something that is so important as a reminder. It's been more than twenty years since the view of the skyline was forever changed and along with that view so many people were lost or deeply affected by what had happened. I was living in a neighborhood near the site at that time, and experienced the events of that day on the rooftop of my building, living through the days afterward in a city that was in shock and mourning. They key word that I thought about on Friday night when I walked up the hill and saw the Tribute In Light was life. I was living through the days afterward and I am living now, and even when life seems difficult or even frighteningly filled with worries and cares, I am alive and have my health, and that is a blessing that I need to always be thankful for.

In the twenty-three years that have passed, so many things have changed in the world and in my own life. There have been wonderful times and difficult times, celebrations, loss, renewal, uncertainty, joy, pain and growth, but the reminder of September 11 for me is that though I was nearby I was safe, and to remember that day in all its horror is to remember that being alive is a gift.

Tribute In Light

Viewed From

The Top Of One Hundred Steps

Jersey City Heights, New Jersey

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

     

An Abundant Life - Storehouse Blessings

Last week two people I know, Aima and Jean Pierre, set a time to come by YES Gallery and bring me dinner. It wasn't just any dinner, it was a homemade Ecuardorian specialty called Seco de Pollo that was made by a Chef who grew up in Ecuador. When they arrived at the gallery with the dinner, I saw them walking down the sidewalk with a suitcase and several bags, and I couldn't figure out what they were bringing or where they were going afterward with all those things until they arrived and said that everything they had carried with them was for me. The suitcase and bags were filled with food, pounds of rice and flour, potatoes, apples, bananas, pasta, a loaf of rye bread and cans of tomato paste, and there was more food too, chicken and kielbasa and ground Italian sausage that they kept in their apartment refrigerator and dropped off the next day when I could bring it home more quickly. 

It was such a beautiful surprise and blessing to have all this food arrive, and the dinner the Chef made and that we shared together was so wonderful. I'd never had that dish before, and he shared about the history of it and also the secret ingredient, something called naranjilla that I hadn't known about or heard of. It took me a few days to bring all the food home, and I had leftovers of the wonderful meal he made too. It's times like that when I am so grateful for the wonderful people who walk into my life and for the care and support and love they share.

As I've written before, there has been so much going on that sometimes it's difficult to schedule my regular events, and this past week was so filled with some very challenging logistical things that having this wonderful dinner brought to me and being surprised by all of this wonderful food and beautiful blessings made me feel like there was a space being made for me to just enjoy and relax and take in the goodness in life. It's wonderful when people surprise us with kindness, and to be blessed in this way is a miracle all of its own. As I look around my own kitchen now and see the jars and shelves filled with provision and my refrigerator and freezer filled to nearly overflowing, with the meals I am making nourishing my body, mind and spirit I feel like I am surrounded with caring love. When our storehouse is blessed we feel taken care of, and I am so grateful for that feeling and blessing that was shared by these beautiful friends.

A Wonderful Seco de Pollo

Made By The Marvelous Jean Pierre

And Served With Love

At YES Gallery

Blessings,

Jannie Susan