From The Blog Series… 365 Blogs To Finding Pinocchio A Home  

Back in the day, people lived like so many of us have been living over these past 6 days, as Hurricane Sandy stormed in and rushed out. We have been left in a bit of a mess, to say the least. I have a new found respect for people who lived way back when without many of the things we have now. I have never thought about not having electricity each day to light my home, not being able to communicate through my computer and cell phone, nor have I blinked on the thought of not being able to to keep my food refrigerated. What about gas to heat my home and cook my food? And let’s not forget the many sources of transportation, like subways and buses, to get me to where I need to go every single day! Wow, people back then just accepted what they had because that is all they knew. They did not realize how easy life could be because they hadn’t gotten a taste of all the abundance that was to come. But you and I have gotten a lot of tastings of how abundant technology has become, and that is what makes this natural disaster even worse. 

It is truly unsettling how much damage has come from Sandy… or I like to say.. Mother Nature. As the East Coast has been hit hard with No Power, No MTA, No Hot Water, No Real Clue, it has forced me to restructure my life for the time being. This experience has forced me out of the house with nowhere to go. It has forced me to just have faith in the city and it’s ability to get us back on track. We can’t be mad, we can only be grateful. My prayers are with all the families that lost their businesses, homes and loved ones. I am lucky that my family is all safe and sound, for the most part.

It’s surreal to think of all the damage that has been done. I mean, it was just August that my entire family and I spent a fabulous week up in LBI. And when I say my entire family, well, I mean my entire family. See for yourself!

We spent that week in a huge home a block away from the beach in LBI. According to what I have been able to hear on my transistor radio, it is pretty much GONE!

How about the many summers I spent going with my Jersey cousins to Action Park?  This too, has been hit so very hard. Memories are still there, but the places have been so damaged, who knows how long it will take to restore.

What about City Island? I have so many memories of the great seafood shops, summer walks and romantic ventures there with my first love. And that too got hit pretty hard. A man, I heard, had just lost his mother a few days before the storm, and then Sandy took away his restaurant, Tony’s Pier. “It burned like a raging inferno.”

I can go on and on, but the point is, this is real stuff, and it is during these times that we, as New Yorkers, find a way to stick together and be as supportive, patient and tolerant of this tragedy, as we can. I wonder if Mother Nature is trying to tell us something. If I could just take a guess, this is my take on it all. I have had 6 days now to see what it’s like to live with a battery operated transistor radio, flashlights and candles, food in the fridge that’s gone bad, no MTA (I finally got my 5 train back today with limited service), limited communication due to my battery power running out on my cell phone, and a real sense of feeling alone, like there is nowhere to go, literally. It took me two of these 6 days to get out of the house and walk around in my area of The Bronx to see what was going on, to find stores that were open and most important, to find a plug and wifi.

On my journey, I bumped into a neighbor I had never seen before and we just found ourselves talking. We talked for a good half hour, first about the power loss and the storm, and then it lead to so much more. We talked about his having his own business and how this is effecting it cause he needs internet to do business from his home. Then he chatted about his two boys and how he taught them to become their own bosses and create their own jobs, rather than depend on being employed by someone else. I so agree with this mindset, by the way. Just because you have a degree, especially in today’s economy, it does not, in any way, mean you will be getting a great job, or even a minimum wage job. This is a fact. Especially with all the outsourcing going on and big business truly taking advantage of this concept to save them money. In the end, GREED and EGO is what will destroy everything we allow it to. But that’s another topic I chose not to get into here, right now. lol

Anyway, as we kept talking, the topic of art and creativity came in, and I spoke of how I was a songwriter and had about 20 years under my belt in this field as a singer, songwriter, guitarist, performer and creator. I said how my “dream of becoming famous” had turned into my wanting instead to “be of service”, using my creative skills. He added that while his two children were self employed, they each had a passion, one for for photography and the other for music. The man, himself, was a painter. He said how the business he has had for so many years has been all about being of service to his customer. He’s in the printing business. He told me how he began in this field, way back as a teenager, and how he accidentally got his first job working in a printing press. As I listened to the story, I got reminded of how every person has their own destiny and if they are willing to listen to their gut and trust that life will take them where they were meant to go, they will eventually get to that internal space of acceptance. It was clear to me that faith is taking me where I need to go. No question about that.

The conversation just went on and on and then it got to the most important part, about what life is all about… being happy. As this man spoke about how he had had a successful business for so many years and how it has become less so today, due to the economy, that he was still happy with his life and with everything around it. This whole encounter really gave me what I needed to see the goodness in all the gloom around. Yes, bumping into a random stranger in my neighborhood, opening up a conversation and my being willing to let the conversation unfold until it ended up around such an important topic in life; Being happy, right now, with all that you and I do have… and not waiting to be happy once things all add up the way you and I planned them out to be. Because the reality is, there is no guarantee that that will ever happen.

I am grateful to have bumped into this man that day. For one, it allowed me to connect to a human being and that, I really would like to do more of, rather than spend so much time online, thinking that that is really connecting. It’s called networking.. not connecting. Also, the topics we talked about reminded me of how much gratitude I have for my health, family, friends and journey I am on. And lastly, the conversation stopped me in my tracks and allowed me to check in with myself and see that I am happy, with exactly where I am, RIGHT NOW, in my life. Does my life look perfect to an outsider looking in? NOPE! But that’s just it. The outsider is in judgment of what he or she thinks she sees. However I, I am in awareness of all the abundance that actually exists right now. And that abundance comes in, in so many ways, not just through money! It comes in through being able to write songs and get paid for doing what I love. It comes in from my allowing others to come into my life and have them ask me for help and my being able to give it to them, the best I can. It comes in from opening up my heart so that I can meet my perfect soulmate one day, and just knowing that while I am doing what I love and being of service to those around me, I have nothing to fear but fear itself!

Hurricane Sandy definitely came in and out of our East Coast lives pretty quickly. And the aftermath will take us quite a long while to get things back in order. But I am clear that I have been gifted from it all. I have been able to be reacquainted with the simply things in life that I so often take for granted, and as I said, I have found a new found respect for those who lived back in the day, when the way we are living right now because of Sandy, was the only way they knew and they got by pretty well because that’s what they had to do. And they were happy with less cause they didn’t know of more. And they were more apt to allow community in because that’s what filled their day, not the internet.

So, as I sit in this Dunkin’ Donuts in The Bronx, for a third day in a row, I watch all the people here, that normally would be at home on their computers or at work, but are now forced out to come together with friends to make the day a little lighter, I have a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Sometimes being forced to socialize and come together is the best thing that can happen to us!

So, how did Sandy effect you? It made me very clear that I am but one more step closer to finding Pinocchio a home! I don’t know how this is all gonna work out. I just know that somehow, it all will.