I had a lovely moment on the NY subway this morning.    I got on my train and grabbed the rail and the train started moving and I noticed I was standing next to this pleasant Chinese family.    The man I presume to be the father coughed.    The train accelerated.    His son was listening to an MP3 player.    He reached over and gently tugged one of the earbuds out of his son’s ear.    The son just put the ear bud back in as though nothing happened.   It was so delicate and charming.    Then he reached over and groomed his daughter’s hair for a moment.   She turned around and smiled.    Her mom smiled and touched her daughter’s hair too.    It was such a pleasant moment.    I started grinning.

I must have looked pretty wild to them.    A long-bearded man in wool and rags.    I really felt the world community on that subway car.   We were sort of all one family in a tight space from different corners of the world.   Everyone staking out their own little slice of “attention real estate” on the subway car.    Moments like these are always so tender for me.    It’s like we all want to connect but most of the time we put up walls that keep us from connecting.  Unless we’re drunk or partying or doing business with each other.   The whole vibe is different on the trains at different times.

There was a beautiful girl on the G train.    She looked Russian and she came in and sat down and like most New Yorkers conjured a force field that said, “don’t bother me”.    I guess we all do it to get through the ride when our sense of intimate space is forcefully compromised.    I enjoy those moments but not everyone does.    I usually just hold space and go to a very meditative place.   Sometimes I can actually feel other people’s energy fields.   Like our Anandamaya koshas are melting together.

The Chinese family got off at 42nd and I saw them walk off toward the 7 train presumably home to Queens.    Maybe from visiting family.    Who knows?   I think we always think of people’s untold stories on the train.   Who are they?   Where are they going?   It brings me back to the question of who I am and where I’m going?    The family is like a reflection of me on one thread of possibility.    A sweet possibility.    One that I should be so fortunate to find myself in.   At least as it seemed to me in watching this nice family interact with each other.   I exited to GCT and on to my day.

Here’s a song I wrote later this evening:

Gingambre

"Ginger 1" from a search "Ginger Art"