Beginning Again

“Good morning, folks, and a Happy New Year,” the conductor says. The red digital letters at the front of this train car read, “Yankees – E 153rd St.” I imagine Randy and Rachel, Roger and Elsie, Layne, Zach, Tristan, and Jared on the platform outside of Yankee Stadium, waiting to board car 4207. What better way to start the New Year than to walk into Grand Central, to meet up with friends to hike the Aqueduct Trail, and to eat hibachi in Tarrytown!?

On the way into Grand Central, a lady from nearby Jackson Heights told me, “You know, I feel like I’m beginning the new year by climbing a mountain.” We continued visiting. I told her that we’re going hiking. “So,” she said, “You’re looking forward to climbing a mountain.”

January 2, 2024

Our friends walked into the train car, and I cut this post short by publishing it, and engaging with them in conversation while enjoying the view from the train car windows. We had a memorable day together that ended with a walk beside the Hudson River, past the lighthouse, and on to a park with unbeatable views of the river, the hills, and the graceful Tarrytown bridge. When Laurence and I passed through Grand Central on the way home, we thought we’d hardly seen the great room so filled with people – mostly tourists.

Today, I cannot help but remember a year ago: of waking up in a cabin at Bear Mountain and seeing out the window, Abigael and Elizabeth leaving for the river at sunrise. A maintenance man walked into the cabin just at devotional time. I opened my eyes after Papa Akinyombo’s lengthy New Year’s benediction to see the man had joined the large circle of brothers and sisters praying. With his cap in his hand he told us how that morning in the cabin with us, he had been in church.

Afterwards, some of us hiked up the mountain. There, at the top, with a view that reached to the Manhattan skyline, my phone rang. It was a doctor calling from Elmhurst Hospital to tell me our neighbor Coca had died. I cried. On the way down, I stepped off the trail to call Jose, another neighbor, who was vacationing in Colombia. We discussed Coca’s life and death and the arrangements that needed to be made. Jose spread Coca’s ashes in Central Park. Her apartment sits empty and will soon come up for sale.

We climbed other mountain trails in 2023. We anticipate climbing some in 2024, if time continues. God’s presence has been and will be with us literally and figuratively on the trails of life. We anticipate the view from the top.

Happy New Year! Berniece