Finding Peace Amidst March Madness: Spiritual Places In and Around New York City

Emily Squires and her husband Len Belzer teamed up to write this wonderful book on where to find serenity in the characteristically hectic city. We are excited to share with you that Spiritual Places is our book of the month for March. While books for NYC tourists are easy to find, Squires and Belzer decided to showcase the grand island in a different light: where to get away from the hustle and bustle and find a moment to relieve stress.

The authors discuss the various locales with reflections on what they learned while in the space. This is a great guide to places around the boroughs that soothe the psyche and gladden the spirit. We hope you get a moment to sit down with this great read.

But if you find yourself just one of the many commuters with little time to spare, we are proud to announce that the book is available on the Kindle and Nook, for your on-the-go lifestyle.

Emily Squires passed away in November 2012, and as a testament to Emily's nature and writing, following is a sample from the book Spiritual Places In and Around New York City written by Emily and her husband Len Belzer:

THE CLOISTERS

Underneath all the texts, all the sacred psalms

and canticles, these watery varieties of sounds

and silences, terrifying, mysterious, whirling and

sometimes gestating and gentle must somehow be

felt in the pulse, ebb, and flow of the music that

sings in me. My new song must float like a feather

on the breath of God. — Hildegard of Bingen

This riveting glimpse into life in the Middle Ages is an essential place on any seeker’s itinerary- especially if you were a nun or monk in a past life. The art is celestial - paintings and illuminated

manuscripts, intricately woven tapestries from churches and castles, a treasury of gold, silver, jewels, ivories, and enamels - each chosen specifically for the Cloisters from the vast collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

But it’s the feeling of the place that makes it so rare. Madrigals and Gregorian Chants echo through high stone-arched corridors. Chairs are set in small chapels for meditation. Beatific statues of saints and Mary with baby Jesus cast their gaze upon you. Recent interest in such figures as the 11th century’s Abbess Hildegard of Bingen have stirred a new appreciation of things Medieval, and the crucial role of herbs in the Middle Ages is being reexamined. The historically accurate garden at the Cloisters gives us an idea how some of them were used. Arcane plants like fever few, agrimony, mallow, and burdock were used by the nuns and their parishioners for cooking, weaving, and painting

as well as healing.

Espalliered pear trees work their way between Gothic buttresses under warm red-tiled roofs. Covered arched walkways enclose small gardens with chirping birds, bubbling fountains, and quince trees laden with fruit. The softest of green grass calls Rumi to mind: “When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.” All this high atop a hill in Fort Tryon Park with a sweeping view of the Hudson. Hie thee there!

(from Spiritual Places In and Around New York City by Emily Squires & Len Belzer; Cosimo Books, New York, 2008)