~~~
Day’s Verse:
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
~~~

Goodbye, Massachusetts phase of my life.

I have not truly appreciated you as I should have. I’ve focused on the things I didn’t like — the triple-deckers and Worcester’s ugliness and the snow, snow, snow, and more snow, the cold, the tolls, the lack of public transportation except for trains going to Boston — and I closed my eyes to your charms. But, Massachusetts, you do have many things I have come to love: Your small towns with their outlying farms, and the even smaller villages within towns. Your tree-lined country roads and many green spaces, which become golden, amber, and sapphire places in the autumn. The way that walking through the woods, we sometimes found old piled-stone walls from when this land was farmed. The many sunny days, summer and winter, that brightened our hearts and warmed our apartment. The people who, despite their reputation for surliness, went out of their way to help me when I got into trouble on my bike. The rolling hills and comfortable, domestic panoramas. The seaside towns with their fishing fleets and gulls, comfortably snugged up with bed and breakfasts and tourists. The Cape. Our CSA and its dazzlingly delicious produce. All your many beautiful, new bike paths that we greatly enjoyed this summer and fall. The cultural offerings in Boston, the museums and plays we experienced. Most of all, the many wonderful relationships I’ve had the honor to be part of that could only have happened when I lived here, in Massachusetts.

Thank you for all the wonderful memories. I will miss you.