An Abundant Life - History With A Heart

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite books was "The Trumpet Of The Swan" by E.B. White. For anyone who knows that book, there's a wonderful description of the Swan, Louis, who is hired to play his trumpet by the people who operate the Swan Boats in the Boston Public Garden and to swim in front of the boats while he plays. Part of his payment is that he is able to stay in the Ritz Carlton Hotel where he sleeps in the bathtub and orders in room service of tea sandwiches with watercress, both with and without butter, to see which one he likes the best. Because of that book, my Mother and I discovered the joys of going to the Ritz Carlton for tea, and the Ritz Carlton has always had a very special place in my heart.

Recently I had reason to go to Boston for a very quick trip, and when I began trying to decide where to stay, I felt like the Ritz Carlton was where I should go. The hotel is not in the same building that it was before and the design and amenities have been very much modernized, but the feeling of being there is just as special as I always remembered it. Every moment from the moment I first walked in gave me the feeling of being so well taken care of that it defined the idea of what hospitality is. Each person was so friendly and helpful, and each place where I went and thing that I saw or did while I was there was something so enjoyable that I knew from the start that I'd want to be visiting again.

I had made a reservation for a Suite in the Club Level, and when I arrived and discovered that not only was the hotel a delightful place to be, the reservation I had made gave me access to a wonderful extra level of personalized service and experiences in the Club Lounge. Before arriving I had made a reservation for dinner because I knew that I would want to enjoy a lovely and relaxing dinner at a restaurant on site, and my next morning was so early that I had been thinking that I would order room service, but then I discovered that I could enjoy breakfast in the Club Lounge as well as some light refreshment throughout the day. The room itself was so comfortable, and I wished that I could have stayed for much, much longer. It was truly such a beautiful time and filled with so many new lovely memories. I kept wondering how Louis the Swan would feel in this new environment, and I had a feeling that he'd be feeling just as wonderful as I did.

A Visit To The Ritz Carlton Hotel

10 Avery Street

Boston, Massachusetts

Wonderful Boston Clam Chowder

At Artisan Cafe

And A Wonderful Lobster Roll

A Grand And Beautiful Lobby

A Lovely Dessert

In The Club Lounge

Arriving Back To A Room

Prepared With Hospitality In Mind

An Early Breakfast

In The Club Lounge

Blessings,

Jannie Susan 

An Abundant Life - Creating Place

On Saturday night there was an opening celebration for a new show at YES Gallery. It's been such a busy time for me with several other projects, and these days I'm doing all the recruiting and hanging myself which is a very enjoyable creative process but also very tiring and physically demanding. As I wrote a few months ago, in the past I always had difficulty climbing ladders. I found it frightening and stressful, especially if I had to do something like carry something up there and bang nails into the walls. But ever since the last show I've had a very different experience. I still need to be careful, and think about what I'm doing, but the stress and fear have gone away very miraculously with the help of prayer and trusting in God to help me do what I need to do.

Another thing that has changed is that I've started to really enjoy the process as a fully creative one, like playing when I was young. I used to love to rearrange the furniture in my room, and to be creative in a variety of ways, and being at YES Gallery has opened up all of those avenues of my creativity so that I'm finding interesting ways of curating, and having so much fun and joy in the process. There are some places where I have hung or displayed things that have made it so unique and so different from any other space, and there are ideas that are solely my own that I had wanted to try and when I did they worked in ways that I love to see.

Earlier last week a mother and her young son visited the gallery, and the boy spoke with me about the Artists and their work, and art and design and architecture. He really thought everything was so beautiful and it was a lovely experience visiting with them. A few days later his mother stopped by to tell me that they were definitely coming to the opening, and that he'd said after their visit that the gallery was a "10 out of 10" and that it was "better than MoMA." Hearing that made my day and made me so happy! To know that a young art enthusiast had that kind of experience in my gallery lets me know that my own playful instincts and taste in art and design are hitting a beautiful chord.

Breathe Through The Space

The Fifth New Show

Opening Celebration

At YES Gallery

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Breathe Through The Space

When I first opened YES Gallery on August 23, 2022, I was careful not to have any breakable or damageable items in places where they could be easily touched or broken. The artwork of course is damageable, but everything was hanging unless it wasn't framed, and if that was the case I put it under glass or in a case or somewhere out of hands reach. The sculptures in the space at that time were all welded iron, steel and metal, and they also were arranged carefully so that people couldn't knock them over or bump into them and damage them or anything else around them.

The one thing I didn't think put away was a small vintage china plate that was in the washroom, and I didn't imagine that anyone would knock it over or break it. Of course there's always something unexpected that happens and I heard a loud crash at one point towards the end of the evening, and one of the visitors had broken it. It would have been a not so pleasant thing to happen on its own, but the plate does not belong to me. It belongs to the woman who has had a vintage store in the space for many years, and the next day when I went online to look it up to see if I could replace it I couldn't find the pattern at all. She understood that it was an accident and was very gracious about it, but I felt awful, and I kept the pieces hoping that maybe I'd be able to find it or repair it.

As the one year anniversary approached, I thought to look for the plate again, and when I still couldn't locate the pattern, I tried to put it back together. When I had finished, there were some very small pieces that were missing, and a poem began to take form in my head. I wrote it down, and used some recycled paper to add it to the places where the cracks were fixed but still obviously there, and left some areas unadorned where the spaces were. The finished piece I gave to the original owner as an anniversary gift, and though it's not in the gallery, a line from the poem is the title of the upcoming new show.

We Try

We all have broken places we try to put together

Sometimes broken by someone else's carelessness

Sometimes our own

Trying to fit the pieces together

We see empty spaces

Places where we feel something missing

Where something should be

But may in those places that seem empty

We are filled

Maybe we have the answer already

Waiting for us to notice

To take it in

Breathe through the space

And be healed

Jannie Wolff August 2023

We Try

A Mixed Media Collage Piece

Created At YES Gallery

August 2023

By Jannie Wolff

Blessings,

Jannie Susan     

An Abundant Life - Enlightening Words

Several years ago I heard about an event that would be happening in Hoboken on the waterfront that a Chef who I admire would be preparing food for in the VIP tent. The event was a technology and innovation conference called Propelify, and the staff member at the Chef's restaurant who told me about it described it in a way that I knew it would be something I'd want to learn more about because of the work that I do with youth and community development. The day of the event I had a very busy schedule, but I decided to try to stop by even if only for a small amount of time to experience at least part of it and say hello to the Chef and see what wonderful things he was creating. I was able to sign up for a ticket, and because I also am on the list for the Jersey City Tech Meetups, I receive regular emails about the event now and sign up for a ticket each year. It's a wonderful event and very exciting to have something like it in Hoboken, and I look forward to hearing about the different topics and information they'll be sharing.

This year, just a few days before the event, I received an email from the organizer with information about a special VIP dinner hosted by David Meltzer that would be held in Hoboken the night before. My week was a very busy one, but the night of the event I did have available, and though I'm in the process of beginning to hang and curate the work for the upcoming show opening at YES Gallery, it sounded like something I needed to follow up about. As anyone who knows me knows, I pray about everything, and I contacted the person listed in the email I'd received feeling as if there was something very important about at least having a conversation. When we spoke I felt even more sure that this dinner was a very special experience that I wouldn't want to miss. It was being held at Olivia's, a restaurant that I've written about in these pages before that has a marvelous Chef, and it's also where the Sommelier and Artist Joel Liscio whose work is in YES Gallery is the Manager and where I had my Grand Opening Night VIP dinner when I opened YES Gallery in August of 2022.

I signed up for a ticket, knowing that it would be a memorable night and it was. David Meltzer was there when I arrived, and right after he introduced himself to me he began introducing me to other people who he thought I might like to meet because of the different aspects of the work that I do. The dinner of course was spectacular, and the conversation I had at my table was so enjoyable. There were two panels of VIP guests to discussed different aspects of their own work and answered questions from the audience, and the things that everyone spoke about were enlightening, important, and helpful for entrepreneurs and business owners from all walks of life.

There was a book that was written by David Meltzer at every seat at the table, Connected To Goodness, and when I began to read it the next evening I found that it had so many ideas and experiences in it that though they were unique to David Meltzer and his journey, they resonated with me in many ways. As I have written about in these pages before, when I was born again it was a time of spiritual awakening that came after a very dark time in my life when I had lost everything, and the knowledge that I was filled with at that time and in the years after has been not only life changing by helping me to live my life in a better way, but also has led me to do the work that I do. Doors were opened and I met people in truly miraculous ways that led me on a journey of discovery and learning and training and growth. I began writing this blog and sharing about that adventure in 2013 and stopped for a while, beginning again in 2015 with this new section that I've subtitled An Abundant Life to share with others that we can have abundance in every part of our life experience by connecting with each other in meaningful ways and supporting and encouraging and growing together.

My schedule these days with YES Gallery is so busy that it's difficult to find time to add a new book to my reading list, but I've made time to read "Connected to Goodness. When enlightening words and people appear in my life I am blessed, and I look forward to the next chapters of the future as they unfold.

Over The Top VIP Dinner

Hosted By David Meltzer

At Olivia's

Hoboken New Jersey

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Rainy Day Glow

I had scheduled the September celebration at YES Gallery for Saturday the 23rd, and then there was a weather report that said there would be the possibility of heavy rains. I don't mind the rain myself, but if I don't have to go out in it I don't like to, and I didn't want the gallery to become a wet and messy muddy place with umbrellas and boots and wet clothes dripping everywhere. Because of some things in my own calendar I didn't want to reschedule, and I thought for a bit that maybe I'd just cancel, but I don't like to cancel things unless I really have to. On the day of the event I started hearing from people that they were still planning to be there if I was, and so I decided to open the door to the gallery and let whoever wanted to stop by stop by. I didn't really know if it would be a small group or a large one, but I prepared for any amount of people and rolled up one of the more damageable rugs so any water coming in wouldn't make a mess of it. Visionary Module who had been planning to be there arrived and set up and played gorgeous music and as guests arrived, there was a feeling of celebration and abundance and good cheer.

There are always things that make us wonder why we're doing something or if something is even worth doing, but in making the decision to continue on with a party even when the rain was pouring down, something happened that was truly lovely. People arrived and it was such a beautiful evening, it didn't feel like a wet and dreary rainy night at all. Coats and jackets and hats and umbrellas somehow found places that kept the room dry, and the visitors stayed so much longer than I'd expected because they were enjoying the cozy brightness inside.

In a photograph taken by the beautiful Pascale Reimers I'm wearing the dress I wrote about a few weeks ago that I found at a new favorite in Chelsea, Sabine's Pop Up Boutique, as I walk through the gallery to create a video of the evening. Just at the moment when Pascale photographed me, I had just seen her photographing me, and in my video you can see us see each other in a moment of fun and joy. 

There's something about YES Gallery that glows no matter what the weather is. On the night of the event as the rain poured down I kept the door open and the light from outside didn't seem grey at all when looked at from within the glowing room inside. It reminds me in some ways of an old show I used to watch that they have remade named Dr. Who. I never saw the new one, but the old one was a favorite. He had a time traveling machine called the Tardis that was a British telephone booth, and whenever he got into it it would start to glow before it took off. At least I think that's what happened. In my memory it is, and sometimes it's the memories we have of things that glow that bring the joy of warmth and light into our present.

YES Gallery

Glowing In The Rain

Photograph With So Much Gratitude

From A Post By

The Beautiful Pascale Reimers

A Short Video Of The Celebration Evening

Music With So Much Gratitude

Performed By

The Marvelous Visionary Module 

Blessings,

Jannie Susan