Today's MOZEN: Nature's New York

Words and photos by F LoBuono

Being at the Center of the Known World has its advantages but it can also be a completely overwhelming experience. So, your perspective makes all the difference in your attitude. The City can make you mad and frustrated in, well, a New York minute. But, with the right frame of mind, it can reward you like few others.

Because of the frenetic pace of living with the New York Megalopolis its easy to get sucked up into the vortex and forget that nature's beauty surrounds you - still!

Just the other night, on my way to work, just twenty miles north of the neon jungle that is Times Square, I spotted a magnificent 14 point buck grazing by the side of the road. I have observed eagles osprey, and falcons as well as water fowl of all kind. And, the late summer sky has been simply breathtaking! This morning dawned with a fiery red blaze in the distant eastern sky battling its way through a phalanx of thick storm clouds that were a harbinger of the nasty weather that was it's way. In the final battle for sky supremacy, the dark forces of the storm clouds overwhelmed the burgeoning rays of the sun. But, not before the fiery glow had its say, if only for a brief moment.

Then, as I crossed the George Washington Bridge, high above the Hudson, the entire, magnificent city, framed by an angry sky and bordered by the molten quicksilver-like water of the river lay ahead of me. As I turned off the bridge on down onto the West Side Highway I could not help but think, "I've experienced this view thousands of times, and each time, every time, it still takes by breath away."

Finally, as I was approaching my exit at W56th St., I watched the tugboats maneuver a huge ocean liner into its berth at the West Side piers as if someone were parking a Volkswagon.

All in a day in and around New York City. It's here for everyone. But, you have to have the awareness to notice.

:)