I've been lucky to spend almost a decade of Decembers in New York City - it truly is the best time of the year to be in the city. Last December had a couple of magic moments including seeing the Subway Therapy displayed at the Union Square subway station. I had seen some photos from friends posted on Instagram but trust me, seeing them in person was a completely overwhelming experience.
Several walls of the station are covered from top to bottom in many layers of post-it notes. The handwritten messages on them range from political to simple hellos to anti-Trump to pro-Hillary to lots of expressions of love. (My favorites usually are the ones with Harry Potter references.) You literally can't believe what you're seeing, there are so many notes. And each of them represent a person on this planet who took the time to stop and share their own personal message. I walked through three times during the week and each time I stopped and read. And cried a little. A happy and sad cry.
No matter which side of the aisle you land on, I'm sure that we can agree we all went through some rough times during the election and fall of 2016. I still carried that gray cloud over my head during December and seeing the Subway Therapy notes really let the clouds part and some sun shine in. It gave me hope and it made me feel like I wasn't alone.
I left a note each time I went by and on New Years Day I discovered the most amazing thing. I was going to post one of my notes on Instagram and while I was scrolling through the #subwaytherapy hashtag, I found that a stranger had picked out one of my notes and posted it on her own account:
I was so amazed and touched that out of all the notes on the wall, this woman had spotted mine and connected with the message enough to share it. The lyrics comes from the song Seasons of Love from RENT - a show that taught me as a teenager about equality and diversity, about standing up to The Man, and about love. I believe in love and kindness and am challenging myself to spread more of both.
You might be feeling that these are tough and uncertain times right now. I do. I hope you see the Subway Therapy photos and know that no matter what you're feeling, you are not alone. We are in this together.
