Author: ruhlwrite

At the present moment, Dave Santander is sitting on a bench outside a café sipping herbal tea. Dave is working on his master’s degree. He’s reflecting on his life. All 30 years of it. It’s more full than his cup of tea: He’s a college student, commuting to class in Connecticut three times a week, and he’s working a bunch of jobs to pay the rent and the tuition to fuel his ambition. Dave grew up in Harriman, New York. If you’ve taken a Chinese yoga class, stepped…

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As the morning sunlight streams in through the windows, Manaslu Gurung places a plump pillow in the center of the floor. Manaslu is from Nepal. As she sits on it, crossed-legged, she positions a brass bowl in front of her. She closes her eyes. The room – and her thoughts – disappear. In 20 to 30 minutes, she will emerge from her reverie, calm and collected and ready to start the rest of her routine. “Meditation sets an intention for the day,” she says. “It really makes…

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Poets are known for their skillful economy of words, so it’s not surprising that Olena Jennings culls hers carefully even in casual conversation. Olena is the founder of Poets of Queens. She is forthcoming about the basic facts of her life, but there’s a sense that there’s far more meaning behind her words than she conveys. Olena, a tall woman with big, beautiful blue eyes, is sitting on a large, overstuffed sofa in her living room. There’s a significantly sized flat-screen…

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Kristin Westbrook is sipping a cup of coffee and smiling, letting the morning light run its warm fingers through her long, blond hair. Kristin is the founder of Calm City. Pinky, her pit bull, has just returned from a romp in Astoria Park and, exhausted, is lounging in a pillow-piled bed by her side. All is calm and peaceful, as if Kristin and Pinky have not a care in the world. Kristin’s career is in graphic design. Kristin, who is being treated for metastatic breast cancer,…

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Porky McDonald has told the story of the disposing of Roy Riegel’s ashes dozens of times. Porky is a lifelong baseball fan. They were die-hard Mets fans, you see, and when Roy died – on, of all days, the season opener on April 8, 2008 – Porky wanted to do something special to honor their friendship, which had commenced when they were boys going to battle with ball and bat. “His death hit me hard,” he says. So, he added, did the fact that the Mets lost to the Phillies that…

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