New York, New York

April 19th and 20th

We had such a rich trip to New York City and packed so much into 48 hours it seemed like we had had a world of experience. Our Saturday morning drive was through a sunlit world that seemed the quintessence of spring, with that first fresh green and flowering trees and shrubs gracing every turn. We listened to a new Tabernacle Choir CD, Called to Serve, on the way which was packed with Mack Willberg arrangements and I cried for the beauty of it all, washing off my eye makeup and having to resort to sunglasses to hide the mess.

Our handy, new GPS on the Prius led us to the South Street seaport office of TKS where we bought two tickets for Lion King from a scalper who both lied to us and overcharged us. However, we were in too good of spirits to be bothered for long. We found a new book called The Island at the Center of the World, which is about America's lost colony--the Dutch who settled Manhattan. Apparently 20,000 pages of manuscript have been stashed away untranslated in a library in Albany for these hundreds of years and translation began on them only a few decades ago. This has opened up an entirely new world of the Dutch who first settled that land--and is compelling to me because our Van Couwenhouven relatives were among those, and now we have cleaned the musty window into their world. Checking the index of the book, I found the name of one direct line grandfather listed several times. I can't wait to dig into this book.

Scot and I went to The Bodies exhibit and then to check into the Edison Hotel where we were to spend the night. This will become our new constant in New York because it is right in the heart of Broadway. We went to Ellen's Stardust Diner for dinner, home of the singing "wait staff" where broadway hopefuls alternately slung fries and burgers and grabbed the mike to wow us with their voices that were too good for a diner. Then it was on to Lion King, where I kept dozing off. Allergies really drain my energy as if someone has opened a spigot on my vital energies.

Sunday we grabbed a cab and headed for the Manhattan Ward, which meets on a lower floor of the temple. To our surprise, however, we were there for stake conference where I was moved again by the Spirit by a wonderful talk by the stake president. He related the story of reluctantly being involved in a service project one Saturday morning delivering food for those in need in the ward. He was pretty efficient, deftly avoiding a long conversation with a woman who seemed bent on it. But he told her he had much left to deliver for the "service project" and then was stung that he had been so callous to objectify her that way.

Right after Church we went to Carnegie Hall where the wind blew chill while we waited for Michaela to arrive. Here are pictures of her singing there and hugging us after. Her group sang the Mass of the Child by John Rutter, which was moving and beautiful.

Michaela's group sang:

Little lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee,

Gave thee life, and bade thee feed

By the stream and o’er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing, wooly, bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice?

Little lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee?

Little lamb, I’ll tell thee;

Little lamb, I’ll tell thee:

He is called by thy name,

For He calls Himself a lamb,

He is meek, and He is mild,

He became a little child;

I a child, and thee a Lamb,

We are called by His Name.

Little lamb, God bless thee!

Little lamb, God bless thee!