Massachusetts

The Northern Lights

~ MaryG ~ 40 Comments

I think a lot of people in the Northeast (including me!) checked off “See the Northern Lights” from their buckets lists last night. This was especially rewarding for those of us who missed seeing them in May. Who knew our once-in-a-lifetime chance would come twice in one year?

The Northern Lights from my very own neighborhood last night around 7:15pm. I was on my way to choir practice and happened to look up.

This feels like a lot of things.

Remembrance

The lights and colors in the sky last night reminded me of my close friend from college, Carla, who died in 2022. She had brain cancer. She really wanted to see the Northern Lights before she died, but was too sick to travel, so her friends and family found a way to project them onto the ceiling in her bedroom in Santa Fe. It was beautiful.

A Sign

I know I’m not alone in feeling a lot of anxiety about the state of the country and the way it feels like we’re never going to go back to “normal” — no matter who wins the election. I’ve never in my life been afraid of a US election, but I’m afraid of this one.

Similarly, I never once saw the Northern Lights as a kid growing up in Massachusetts, but this year, many New Englanders saw them twice! A little girl standing near me last night said, “this is God.” Maybe so. Or maybe it’s a sign of transition to a new era—an era where completely new things happen.

Unknown new things are scary and I have a strong urge to “circle the wagons” and try to protect the ones I love. (I think to myself, “please stay in Massachusetts where you’ll maybe be a bit safer from gun violence, flooding, dangerous reproductive care, crappy public schools, etc.)

But I know that’s not really possible.

My new granddaughter will hopefully live into the next century. She will live out most of her life in this new era, whatever it may be. I want her to feel free, adventurous, and safe to explore the world beyond her home state.

Living in the transitional time

An activist friend of mine left for New Zealand yesterday. She’s staying until the end of the month. She said she just needed to get out of the country for these last few weeks before the election. I can relate. In some ways, it’s all just too much.

Maybe seeing the aurora borealis is the reminder some of us needed to center ourselves and live in the moment. Humans have been around a long time and have accomplished many great things and many terrible things. Even though it sometimes feels like end times are upon us, there’s a decent chance that something great is just around the corner too.

Final thought: just breathe

Related post:

Northern Lights II

From Stockbridge to Boston

~ MaryG ~ 9 Comments

All James Taylor fans know this verse from Sweet Baby James:

Now, the first of December was covered with snow
So was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston
Though the Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frostin’
With ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go

Last night after my amazing Tanglewood experience, we stayed overnight at the historic (and possibly haunted) Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which was built in 1773.

That’s right. The Red Lion Inn is three years older than the United States. It was built the same year colonists were starting to get super annoyed with King George and dumped a bunch of tea in Boston Harbor.*

The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts is one of the oldest hotels in the USA. It started as a tavern in 1773.
We had dinner on the famous front porch of The Red Lion Inn last night and met some very interesting people, including two non-binary GenZ artists and a woman our age who is launching a solar farm business.
Interior view of the Red Lion tavern
Our room at The Red Lion Inn had to be locked and unlocked with an actual key 🔑
The Lost Lamb is a wonderful French patisserie in tiny, quaint downtown Stockbridge. I got both a chocolate croissant and a plain croissant with my café au lait.
A pretty stained glass window in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (est. 1834), which is directly across the street from Red Lion.

After a swim in the outdoor pool at Red Lion, we stopped for a delicious lunch at the Starving Artist Café in nearby Lee. We chatted with a woman from nearby Pittsfield, where I was born and spent the first three years of my life. Back then, everyone in Pittsfield (including my dad) worked for General Electric.

I don’t know why I hadn’t been back to this area in decades, but I will not wait so long to return. After lunch, we put on some James Taylor in the car and hopped on the turnpike back to Boston. The traffic gods were with me and I got home before 4pm.

A mural in downtown Lee

*The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by American colonists against British taxation policies. It occurred on December 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts. Colonists, frustrated by the Tea Act—which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonies, effectively lowering the cost but undercutting colonial merchants—disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded British ships. They proceeded to dump 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. This act of defiance became a pivotal event leading up to the American Revolution.

Related post:

Bucket list progress: Tanglewood

Stained Glass Window

Hello Summer

~ MaryG ~ 8 Comments

Who would you like to talk to soon?

Not who, what.

Summer.

And the wait is over. It’s here. It starts today. It’s the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and it’s going to be in the 80s.

I’m registered for an afternoon slot at my outdoor pool. I’ll get to swim laps and read my book outside today.

Our current book group selection. I need to finish it by Wednesday.

I cleaned (really scrubbed!) my porch yesterday. It’s looking good and is temporarily pollen-free.

My May delivery from BloomsyBox is spectacular and perfectly pink for summer.

Oh, and it’s Gemini season. My time has come.

Hello Summer.

😄 💓 ♊️ ☀️ 🏊 🌸 😎

Related post:

Monthly delights

Summer is our Glory in New England

Summer Reading

I like my porch

Housing

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments

What personal belongings do you hold most dear?

I guess the thing I can’t live without is my house. I mean, I could, but it would be tough.

People, of course, matter more than anything else and are irreplaceable.

I feel badly that home ownership seems to be out of reach for so many people—especially in Massachusetts. I love my state, but the lack of affordable housing is a major problem.

Our first house looked a bit “overgrown” when we drove by a few years ago.

My husband and I had very lucky timing. We bought our first house in 1995 when our daughter was 6 months old for 155K. It was an antique house with lead paint, no garage, a leaky fieldstone basement, a horrible old kitchen over a crawl space and 1.5 bathrooms. We sold it 9 years later, in 2004, for 385K with some moderate updates (including the kitchen). It went up 148.5% in 9 years!

It was just plain luck. If we’d waited 5 years, it would’ve been mid-housing crisis and things would not have worked out so well.

Related post:

Stonework

The love you leave behind when you’re done

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What is the legacy you want to leave behind?
View all responses

The question of legacy always reminds me of the song “Everything Possible” by Fred Small. I knew Fred when he was my minister in the early 2000s. I heard him perform this lullaby on several occasions and each time it made me cry.

It was especially meaningful during the battle for marriage equality in Massachusetts. We were the very first state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004 (20 years ago), but it was a protracted legal and legislative fight. Though it had been written in 1983, “Everything Possible” struck a chord during that time. In our church, Fred took a stand and stopped performing all marriages, until marriage was legal for same-sex couples too. The song became a highly emotional signature anthem for the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.

Recently, Fred tweaked the lyrics to be more inclusive of non-binary people and created a children’s book to accompany the song and further spread the message of love and acceptance.

The chorus is the most beautiful part.

You can be anybody you want to be,
You can love whomever you will
You can travel any country where your heart leads
And know that I will love you still
You can live by yourself, you can gather friends around,
You can choose one special one
And the only measure of your words and your deeds
Will be the love you leave behind when you’re done.

Here’s a beautiful live performance of the song by the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.

And here’s Fred himself singing the new version of “Everything Possible.”

I’ll definitely be buying this book for my granddaughter, when she’s old enough.

I’d like to be remembered for the love I leave behind when I’m done.

Rev. Fred Small having a chat with a group of children in my church around 2004—the year when marriage equality became law in Massachusetts

Taxes

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments

What do you do to be involved in the community?

I’m part of a few different communities, but as for the town itself, I mainly vote and pay taxes—lots of taxes.

In fact, I just voted to increase my own taxes to help fund the schools and other municipal services. In Massachusetts, we call that “a Proposition Two and a Half Override.” I have no idea why.

We’ll find out tonight if the override passed.

My feeling is that even though my kids are done with the schools, I want current students to have what they need. But these tax increases are very tough on elderly people with fixed incomes. I see both sides.

Masshole here

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I think I’ll stay in Massachusetts. It’s such a boring answer, but with the world the way it is, I really wouldn’t want to risk any other state or country. The long cold winters are a big problem for me, but you can always jump on a plane to someplace warm.

Top 5 things about Massachusetts:

We have many beaches — from Salisbury to Westport, plus Cape Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket

We have mountains — the Berkshires are a magical region loaded with world class cultural organizations like Tanglewood and Jacob’s Pillow

We have Boston — it ain’t NYC, but it’s a real city with an international airport and several wonderful art museums

Most of the people I love and care about live here.

Politics: we were the first state to legalize same sex marriage and pass universal healthcare. We guarantee women’s reproductive freedom and have restrictive gun laws (although loopholes still exist). Trump lost every single Massachusetts county in the 2020 election.

People call us “Massholes,” but that’s just because they don’t know how to fuckin’ drive.