speak to my soul

Today, I walked a fair distance  to go to the cafe that speaks to my soul.

There's another quite functional cafe around the corner from me. Were I  wanting coffee, it'd do.

"We're spiritually starved in America and not underfed, but undernourished." - Carol Hornig

At this cafe poetry flows. The main elements: warm blond woods everywhere, hardwood floors, sunlight streaming through glass, no wifi, owners that know your name. Fired play and rainbowed glass art. Wall of teapots: flowered teapots, porcelain teapots, shiny silver teapots, glazed teapots. Cerulean blue plates, giraffe bookmarks, sleek Italian almond hazelnut ginger lemon syrups, intricate little jewel boxes fluttering memories of Murano colors and Venetian sunglasses, undulating anemone ashtrays. Enormous pottery redolent of a woman with an alabaster jar, or maybe something you'd heave to the well for your daily quench. One jar like colossal conch shell, another jar amazonian emerald endive leaves, another striped watermelon ribbons of clay wending vine-like toward the minaret neck.

"It's meant to evoke the way an artist would live." - Ian Schrager, hmmm, does art speak to soul more than design?..."Rather than just slapping art up on the walls of the [Gramercy Park] lobby and guest rooms (although they'll do that too), its spirit will permeate the place."

From this cafe I twitter: "I imagine schools where weaving daydreams & sculpting magicscapes *IS* paying attention". In my journal, I twizzle with twitter poetry reserved for the walk home: "in my cosmic clan, we thrive on iridescent icosahedron not iPhones, fey not Facebook, music not Myspace (twitter is an exception ;-)"

I comprise storylines for performance art, plays, playgrounds. I ought to be able to write anywhere, be anywhere, thrive equally anywhere. The reality is some places sing and speak to my soul, while others are muted, holding back their song.

"If we are sensitive, we can feel when environments are awakened. Human beings can be more or less awakened. So can trees or a mountain, canyon, hilltop, or a particular street corner in our neighborhood. When we are sensitive, we can feel these things. When we expose ourselves to that awakeness, to that environment where spirit and matter are harmonized, it helps us awaken. Ultimately, that's what satsang is. That's also what meditation really is." - Adyashanti, Emptiness Dancing (practically have this Harmonization chapter memorized)

It's so simple really I'm confounded why I ever second-guess my heart and gut: that cafe feels warm, feels good to me. Simple.

p.s. A walk on a gorgeous day is better than icing on the cake. Twittered these via text messaging enroute: round table convenes outside.princely jasmine, regal agapanthus, sheathed magnolia knights in armor share tree w/ grail cups of perfumed bliss and: Summer of love: walkin 2 café where every1 knows yr name & spot bold california poppy orange 72 Volkswagon bus 4 sale.tempted

Comments

[Nadine]

Some quotes from Dana Gioia's commencement speech:

"A child who spends a month mastering Halo or NBA Live on Xbox has not been awakened and transformed the way that child would be spending the time rehearsing a play or learning to draw."

("awakened" and "transformed" you say?)

"Art addresses us in the fullness of our being—simultaneously speaking to our intellect, emotions, intuition, imagination, memory, and physical senses. There are some truths about life that can be expressed only as stories, or songs, or images."

"Art awakens, enlarges, refines, and restores our humanity."

Entire text here:
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/june20/gradtrans-062007.html

[Michael Palmer]

I have periodically visited your site and you are rare jewel among rubble and rocks. I have some friends who think like you. We tell each other we are from the same tribe.

Your writing and thoughts are exactly the kind of material we enjoy reading. Your cafe description is wonderful. I just wanted to say thanks. It is always wonderful to see others from the tribe who exist is this world that are not so blind to it's beauty.