Thank you New York.
Thank you, New York.
Thank you for raising me into adulthood.
Thank you for beating down my self-confidence.
Thank you for working me to the bone.
Thank you for all the heartbreak,
The heartache.
Thank you for all the meaningless sex in my twenties.
Thank you for showing me what it means to hustle.
Thank you for all the teachers,
and all the modalities,
that got me to get how little I loved myself.
And how lost I was from own body.
Thank you for showing me that I can choose different ways of being,
Thank you you for teaching me that I'm the only one who gets to make the meaning in my life.
For bringing my lack of self-compassion into my awareness.
Thank you for taking advantage of my unconsciousness.
And THANK YOU, New York,
for WAKING ME UP.
Thank you for all the friendships,
That came and went.
And thank you for the friendships I'll leave with.
Thank you for all the times I listened to others,
instead of listening to my own heart.
Thank you New York for holding the space for me to find my heart and listen to it.
Thank you for all of the times I fell in love.
Thank you for all the late night dances in my kitchen in Park Slope.
Thank you for showing me how I was being attached.
Thank you New York,
For showing me that all of life is a dance.
Thank you for all of the wonderful, deep, rageful dances,
Thank you for all the re-enactments.
And thank you New York for the dances that rocked my world,
That showed me I could experience more joy in one moment than I ever thought possible.
Thank you New York for making it impossible for me to find a new home here after I left you the first time.
Thank you for all the grief,
For all the loss.
Thank you New York, for helping me find the Receiver in Sender-Receiver.
Thank you for raising me into adulthood New York.
Thank you for your smelly summer subway cars.
Thank you for post-dance bliss in the park.
Thank you for introducing me to all the men who treated me as crappy as I treated myself.
And thank you for teaching me what love really is.
Thank you for teaching me about trauma.
Thank you for teaching me about myself.
Thank you New York for thirteen amazing years in your concrete jungle.
Thank you for reminding me that I can get out of my head,
And into the energy.
Thank you for showing me
that I am an (un-wounded) healer,
A spiritual warrior.
A transformation facilitator.
Thank you for reminding me that I am dancer.
Thank you for making me into a yogi.
Thank you New York,
For raising each and every one of my family members.
Thank you for being my refuge when I was young.
Thank you for wowing me with your Statue of Liberty on car-rides across the bridge to my grandmother's house when I was a little girl.
Thank you for waiting for me to run into your arms after college.
Thank you, New York, for allowing me to love you,
and to hate you.
Thank you for helping me lose my connection to myself.
Thank you for the ceaseless way your heartbeat pulses throughout the streets
at any and all times of day and night.
Thank you for all the fantastic pizza.
For late nights at the pubs down by City Hall.
For sleepless elections days,
For so many breakthroughs with clients.
Thank you New York for after-dinner strolls to Uncle-LouieG's to eat Chocolate Jelly Ring Italian Ices.
Thank you for all the tears shared and howls of laughter.
For multiple variations of fake chicken around Washington Square Park.
Thank you New York,
for being you.
Thank you for being so staccato, New York.
Thank you, New York.
Thank you.
