NYC 2026 - Week 4

Garden at St John Cathedral

I seriously cannot believe I’m already at the end of week 4! A full month of being here. It only seems like yesterday since my arrival. I’m lying here in bed, because I have been sick for the past few days. A cold with a sore throat and a bit of fever has forced me to stay in. 

So this will not be remembered as the best week of the trip. Although it could be worse, but let’s not hope for that.

What can I tell you about last week? On Saturday, I took it slow. I finally took my embroidery project in hand. Before I left Belgium, I had a few friends over to show them my latest work. I had them draw something on a shirt and now I’m ‘colouring’ them in, stitch by stitch. It feels good to finally do something with my hands again. I spent enough time in my head and we (me and all the voices in my head) can sometimes use a break from that.

Sunday I had a date! But I feel like keeping this story still to myself. After getting better, I want to experience the sequel first.

Monday was for writing and talking. At my favorite place, Nook, they were doing a Spiritual Salon. The girl who organized it, actually spoke to me last week, while I was waiting for the writer’s group to start. She saw me sitting there and approached me. I did feel a draw to join her so I decided to try it out this week.

Morningside Park

So what’s a Spiritual Salon? Just a cute little group of people talking about all kinds of spirituality. There weren’t many people joining, so for the first half hour or so, we sat there just the two of us. Our connection was instant. She was very calm and zen. She was also very new to the city and this was only month 5 of her organizing these free get-togethers. The context of how we both experience spirituality was different but in the end we could find common ground in our own definitions of Spirituality.

Hearing her speak about God landed somewhere in my body and since Monday I’ve been thinking about it daily. But before getting into that, let me share this first with you. There are a few things I believe to be true: 1, there is something bigger out there, a force, an entity, a consciousness that is still a mystery to us, human beings. Even though science has progressed so much over the past century, there are still events, circumstances, situations that leave our human minds guessing about the cause. 2, religion has been around on this Earth for a long time. But in the last decades, we seem to have lost our faith. Which I stand by. We figured out that religions have been used to control people, abuse people, and much more.

However, I also believe that having faith is something that would make us happier again. Having had several severe depressions in my life, I needed to find something again to believe in. A reason that whatever is happening in our lives, is not for nothing. In a sense you can call it a purpose, but I like to see it as something else, I just don’t have the word for it yet. 

So back to the Spiritual Salon. We talked about having conversations with God. About finding God in everything you do, in every emotion you have, on a daily basis. God is something that is all around us but also something we carry within us. And if you don’t like the word ‘God’, let’s use the word ‘Spirit’ or ‘Soul’. It’s an individual thing but at the same time, we all have this sense at some point in our lives, that we come from the same source. Like the group Faithless, that sings ‘We become one’.

This journey to me is a leap of faith. I cannot see further than the length of my arm. So many things are out of my control. I’m throwing out lines, like fishermen do, but I cannot control when the fish will bite, nor do I know what kind of fish will hook on. The only thing I can do, is control my own thoughts, my own actions, my own feelings. I caught myself being frustrated, even angry sometimes this week. So I talked to Spirit, asking to open the way to my heart so I could find joy again. I felt scared, even panicked this week, and again I asked to help me have faith, to trust that everything is going the way that it needs to go. To help me unclench my butt, because nothing good comes from holding it up. You gotta let that shit go, you know. 

And yes, yesterday, I got a sign. I got a fish pulling. I don’t want to be jinxing anything here. I still have to seal the deal. But the fact I could make this new connection out of the blue, made my faith in Spirit even deeper. And this is a practice I intend to keep. Not only when the going gets tough, but in every moment I live, in every breath I take, every move I make. 

Mural in Harlem

Thanks again for sticking with me. I can feel the love and support coming from all places! This really warms my heart. I hope you enjoyed this letter. Please feel free to reach out if you want to have a conversation about something. I also want to ask you what you would like to read about. Or do you have any suggestions of what I should do while being here? I’m open to that, for sure!

With love,

Naomi/Numi

(PS: still trying to put a bit more humor in my days. Tips are welcome!)