This past week I took a trip to Boston and Wilmington, Massachusetts, something that I've been doing quite a bit in the past year and a half, nearly every month or so I've been traveling for a quick turnaround overnight for some necessary meetings and other appointments that have to do with the home where I grew up.
On other trips I've stayed in Boston and traveled by train to Wilmington or other towns nearby on the same route, but this time I decided to stay in Woburn, the town next door, and to spend more time at the house and property than I've been able to before.
A few weeks before I was planning this trip, someone I know reconnected me with a friend from my childhood, someone I've known my whole life. It was lovely to speak with her on the telephone, and we wanted to meet in person the next time I was in the area and had extra time at the house. This time was the right time, and when I told her about my trip and timing, she invited me for dinner and also said that her husband had offered to drive me to and from the station and my hotel and anywhere else I needed. It was an amazing gesture of generosity and kindness, and I accepted with gratitude, feeling so humbled that here I was after all these years receiving such goodness and blessing. The person who had reconnected me to that friend also offered to meet with me and drive me wherever I needed, and we planned a breakfast together on the morning after I had stayed overnight, and she treated me to a gorgeous feast at The Real McCoy, a place with a rich and deep local history and one of the best restaurants I have ever been to anywhere. I also reached out to another friend I hadn't seen in many years, and she also offered her help and to meet me on the afternoon of the second day I was there. Seeing her again brought back so many memories of beautiful times and beautiful days, and how beautiful life can be. It was truly a beautiful experience to have all of the beautiful people rallying around and bringing their sweet light and love and blessings to share with me as I found myself finally, after what seems like a very long time, being able to open the door of the house where I grew up and to begin again to feel I was home.
I have lived in New York City for a long time, and also in Jersey City, and have spent so many years in places other than Boston or Wilmington that I had begun to feel like these other places had become home. In a way they have, but home is where the heart is as the saying goes, and a part of my heart will always be in Massachusetts, rooted in the fields around the house where I grew up and in the house itself. Over these past years, before I was able to take this trip in the way that I did, every time I"d travel to Boston or take the train to the town of Wilmington or nearby I'd have this feeling that there were so many people who I remembered who I wanted to connect with and so much time I wanted to spend there, reconnecting with the land and home I've loved for so long. On this visit I had a chance to feel what it is like to really come home again, and I have to say that after all these years in other places I've loved, there is no place anywhere else like home.
