MSIA travel staff are currently on the East Coast, providing MSIA Services (Innerphasings, Polarity Balances & Aura Balances) as well as MSIA events. Staff member, Angel Gibson, provides this update from the trip:
DAY 8 – New York
It’s Monday and we’re doing Services today. Vincent, Lesley and Mary Ann Somerville are heading out to Connecticut to do Services at Shelley Rothbard’s home. These are fun field trips, so to speak, like having a day out in the country. The only downside is they get to get up early to catch the early train. But then again the whole train experience including walking through the renovated Grand Central station–seeing all the markets and stores there–is quite fun. On the other end Leigh Hamel, our MSIA Rep for Connecticut and northern NY is there to drive our staffers to Shelley’s home and be the lovely maitre d’ette for the day.
Emily John, our NY MSIA Rep, has done a superb job of organizing the logistics on all fronts of this trip, especially Services. She meets me at breakfast for a little time together to just be and enjoy before we start the day. Cleora and I are doing Services at our hotel which is not only near Grand Central station, it is like Grand Central station in the lobby today. But there is something very interesting happening…there’s lots of purple in and around the people in the lobby..literally…as there are graduations all day long with NYU and their adult program and the graduation robes are all in purple. Though we have to weave in and out of the crowds and picture-taking families, we enjoy the celebratory atmosphere as we connect with those in our family who are here today to receive an MSIA Service. At the end of the day things have quieted quite a bit and we enjoy the calm. Tonight we all have the evening off. Some of us opt for the movies–The Flying Scotsman–which I enjoyed a lot, and then dinner. As we walk around Times Square on our way home, the colors, pictures, people even at this late hour of the night are vibrant and highly stimulating. It’s nice to get back to our hotel and rooms. After a few emails we are claimed by sleep in hopes to catch one of those Traveler’s night trains.
DAY 9 – New York
It’s a lovely day today in the city…the sun is shining way up there over the tall buildings. This time it’s Cleora’s and my turn to have our field trip and we are going to New Jersey to do Services at Elsa Hill’s home in Florham Park, near Madison. We go to Penn station and catch a NJ commuter. As we move out of the city we catch sight of the spring flowering trees and more abundant spring green. When we land at Madison station, it looks like we stepped right onto a movie set of a small town. We come to find that in fact this train station and the cute little theater across the street from the train station have been used a number of times in movies. As we drive to Elsa’s, I feel like we’re traveling back in time seeing Victorian homes with pink weeping cherry trees, beautiful and fragrant lavender lilacs and white and pink dogwood trees interlace through tall fir, oak and maple trees. Ah, the east coast in Spring…how I love this. Elsa and her kind husband, Bob, make us feel right at home and right away we start Services.
Meanwhile Lesley, Vincent and MaryAnn are today doing Services at the hotel. Midday, Roger takes off to set up audio/video for the Tri-State Ministers training at the Marble Collegiate church. For all of us the day whirls by. Elsa packs Cleora and me off to the train station in plenty of time to catch our train back to the city so that we can get over to the Ministers meeting where John Morton is going to do some Q&A.
This location, the Marble Collegiate church, has quite a lineage of pastors, including the very famous Norman Vincent Peale who preached at this church for over 50 years. So it was very fitting that our Traveler was speaking in these historic halls and blessing them with the Spirit. Frannie Rutherford MC’s the evening graciously. John gracefully and humorously addresses the various questions posed by some of our ministers. Cleora, Mary Ann and I find we must be tuning in on the other side as our heads are bobbing around a bit this evening. At the end of the evening we staffers all are tired and we are helped by wonderful volunteers who speed up our packing time — Ezra, Manny Stissi, Jim Lynch watching over us all, and a host of others. Thank you. Then it’s back to our hotel for a few emails and some welcomed horizontal time.
DAY 10 – New York
Wednesday. Breakfast today is over at Pershing Square, a picturesque little restaurant that is right across from Grand Central. The coffee tastes good to me today, and breakfast comes quickly as we chat away waking ourselves up for the day. Roger and Vincent take off to set up at Abigail Adams Museum Annex for the “Evening of the Blessings Workshop” and Cleora, Lesley, Mary Ann and I begin our Services. Hilary, our hostess, is right on it, making sure each one of us connects with their balancee, and she arranges our lunch so nicely at a nearby Grill. Our lunch break is quick but satisfying and then the afternoon’s Services begin and are over in a flash. Throughout the day we catch up lovingly with our friends from NY, experiencing as we do so how grateful we are to be part of this work of releasing and letting go into greater loving for ourselves and what is in our lives. Services done for the day, we change and catch a taxi with John Morton over to the Annex.
Candy Womer has been tending to her TC duties wonderfully. All is in readiness with that buzzing air of expectancy. Ann Webre, the evening’s MC takes the stage and gently warms up the group, like the veritable first chair violinist of a classical orchestra and then introduces John Morton. Like the “Maestro” he is, he takes the baton and leads us through our own divine symphony of blessings. Very sweet, with a rich blend of themes that have us sailing home that night. I choose to walk home tonight and spend the moments enjoying the colorfulness of this city’s landscapes of skyscrapers, interesting faces, and sounds.
DAY 11 -New York
Thursday and a few more Services to do before going to our veritable feast. Late this afternoon and tonight we have the fundraiser event. This year it is a special dinner and Q&A with John Morton. After Caryn Kanzer and Joan Witkowski got the ball rolling with their special enthusiasm and devotion, Wayde continued the energy for this event with putting together the menu, decor and special promo ideas. When we entered the Abigail Adams Annex building, yesterday’s seminar room had been transformed into an elegant dining room. A long table is decorated with tea candles, rose petals and 3 gracefully constructed white lily and greens floral arrangements that convey elegance and simplicity and warmth. For schmoozing we have “mocktails” of Mohitos, Margaritas, Cosmopolitans and more giving us the fun without the “kick”. Savory hors d’oeuvres are passed around. We’re in an aura of delightful gentility. Then Joan Witkowski and Caryn call us to the table, thanking each of the participants for coming forward to be here, and then the feast unfolds. My goodness, the tastes are wonderful. I have the little gnocchi with mushrooms and broccoli. I see and smell the pasta Putanesca—yum. And it keeps going up from there. I was practically licking my plate after finishing the duck with raspberry sauce, and the others around me seem to be equally enjoying their choices. We finished with coffee/tea and either a fruit tart or tira misu. Then we’re ready for the real main course–our questions and answers with John Morton. This course lasted almost 6 non stop hours, without a break! It was so filling as John took the perfect time with each person to answer what they brought to him. As I did sound log, I noted the peace in the room throughout the entire evening, like a velvety sacredness that kept pouring over us. John seals the evening with a beautiful blessing and then it is pack up time. Ah, we’re feeling tired and buzzed…a sweet mix. Well, it’s back to the hotel for a few late night emails, and start packing up our suitcases for tomorrow we travel to Philadelphia.
DAY 12 – New York to Philadelphia
It’s Friday and time to go to Philly. I always have fun going to the “next” city. Vincent does such a great job of packing all of our things into the Expedition that I offer to tip him. Laughing we take off waving goodbye and thank you to all of our sweet family in New York. The Traveler wishes us Bon Voyage over the walkie. John will do sharing tonight in New York at the combined DSS/MSS class; then he and Roger will drive to Philadelphia. What a treat–Vincent drives and I get to do some email as we banter back and forth. The trip is fairly short to Philadelphia. We take the time to settle in, and then it’s off to explore the Whole Foods store in downtown Philadelphia–our field trip for today. Back at the hotel we each retire to private time. I’m at the computer and emails and Cleora catches a little TV before sleep. I’m waiting up to welcome John and Roger who arrive around 12:50am. Time for bed all the way round as the new day is shortly to be upon us and it is a full day.
Click here to read Days 1 through 3 with Angel Gibson.
Click here to read Days 4 through 7 with Angel Gibson.
