Rebecca A. Foster

A sentence in the book Mindfulness In Plain English : "...from a pragmatic perspective, it is much better to cultivate the noble thought, 'May all beings be happy-minded' than the thought, 'I hate him.'" And have you ever read something so clear that you feel stupid you never chose those words before to express a thought? Because how clear is that sentence? It is better to wish people well than to hate them. Better not for them, better for YOU. I posted a few days ago about writing a humor-based type of guide to what can happen when you choose to be honest about your feelings. It was to make fun of myself, not someone else, but it was still choosing to focus on something that was hurtful to me, even if to make light of it. (A coping mechanism?) But now I think, 'How is focusing on something hurtful helping me help other people? Can I be a person who treats others with loving friendliness if I'm always thinking about how one person caused some hur...

My NYC photos video. Here are the links, they'll open the video directly: PC/Mac, click here:  Video link iPhone, click here: iPhone link . iPad, click here: iPad link . Android phone, click here: Android link . Mobile versions are about 60 MB, so might take a few minutes to load. Hope you like it.

Taken from the lookout off of 181st Street in Washington Heights, NYC.

An interesting thing about the Peace Corps: a lot of people fall in love while serving. With each other. I didn't realize how many long-term relationships are formed between people serving in the Peace Corps, but I think it's pretty cool. After all, you're throwing a group of people together who probably have similar goals of helping others, who like adventure and traveling, and maybe even have similar life goals as far as work, schooling etc. It makes sense so many people would feel a strong connection. And you get to see them living life in action in a way you usually don't if you meet a guy in a bar, or wherever. You get a good feel for their character. I've been a poor judge of character in the past, blinded by whatever it is we get blinded by. But being here has helped me recover my discerning eye. This picture was taken earlier this month on "Manhattan Solstice," the one day a year when the sun lines up with the Manhattan city blocks running east t...

Washington Heights Raincoat. Yellow/blue plaid. Returned my unworn yellow wellies and got navy blue ones instead. Rinascimento raincoat , $205

Washington Heights in northern Manhattan-- I stayed with my cousin when he lived there, on 181st St. On a blog I read, someone said "COME TO WASHINGTON HEIGHTS. It's the happiest place on earth. Seriously, it's like Sesame Street, but all the muppets have weed.*" And that cracked me up, pretty much my new favorite description for WH: Sesame Street on drugs. It's a bit crazy up there, but I love it. Last time I was there, I walked from Amsterdam Ave to the George Washington Bridge (not a long walk) on 181st. I took some pictures of the GW bridge from the Washington Heights side and when I go back to NYC later this month, I was going to take pictures from the bridge itself of the Manhattan view (there's a pedestrian walkway). But then I read it's illegal to take pictures from the bridge. Homeland Security violation. Crushed. *thanks to this person for giving me permission to quote her.