Sunday morning, waiting to cross Massachusetts Avenue at Cambridge Street in Harvard Square, I overheard two tourists, standing behind me, also waiting for the crosswalk sign.
“It’s not square,” one woman commented, looking at the hodgepodge of intersecting, bustling streets before us, Cambridge Common, green and leafy, across the street.
“No shape,” agreed the other. She paused, as if at a museum, to carefully assess what was before her: “There’s no plan, really.”
Oh, but there was, I wanted to say! Look again. Directly in front of you, not a quarter of a mile away, is a river. The Charles River. Below your feet, beneath all this concrete and paving, are springs. These multi-lanes streets were once pathways leading to sources of fresh water, the best places to fish, higher-ground land that would not flood in the spring. The indigenous people who once inhabited Harvard Square knew every inch of where we’re standing. They had a plan.
And that Commons, I could have gone on. That was the communal place where early settlers pastured their cows. We greater-Bostonians joke that our meandering, confusing, non-gridded streets were once cowpaths. What we don’t acknowledge is that our semi-historic factoid neglects who’d originally created those paths. And why.
Water is Life, I could have extolled, church bells ringing from the other side of the Commons. That’s the plan. Are you ready?
Dear Patricia,
Well, hi, there, Patricia, and greetings and salutations to you and to you and for very especially YOU For Always my so, so very dearly awesome and awesomely special soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker woman who you’re For Always so, so very much!!!!! WOW, I just so, so very much love, like, enjoy, and appreciate this very interesting, fascinating, and fun-filled blog post article here by absolutely AWESOME YOU ,which has enlivened my creative imagination and made me just percolate and percolate, Patricia!!!! 🙂 The title of this very endearing blog post article is just perfect here, absolutely perfect, and very fitting and applicable to the very great themes and topics of your great writing here. The picture which you’ve very graciously and generously featured and included with this stupendous writing here is just perfect, picture-perfect and informative perfectly adding to and complementing your so full of such sharp descriptive clarity writing! Your very pertinent explanation underneath this outstanding picture truly helps to give me and your other avid readers a better understanding of it all, sister! The two tourists who you overheard talking really had no idea at what a treasure of both nature and humankind which they were beholding when viewing Cambridge Common. There is definitely far more to Cambridge Common than meets the eye above the surface and these two tourists sure missed the blessed grandeur of God’s Nature and humankind’s great genius straight from Spirit with what was above and below the surface of the grand Cambridge Common, sistah!! When I had gone back to college as an older, non-traditional student in the early 2000s this time at the great University Of Iowa here where I live now in my very wonderful Iowa City, Iowa I had taken a required course where it was blessedly and informatively taught that there are springs beneath the surface of the land which act as our water source for all of our very needs and uses for refreshing, life-saving and life-sustaining water. WOW, this info is just so cool in spirit and Spirit here, sister and friend of mine, Patricia, just like you shared here as well!!!! There is definitely more intricacy to the Cambridge Common than the two tourists ever realized, Patricia!!!!! 🙂 I’ve not yet visited Boston. How appealing would this magnificent city be with the very scenic and historic Cambridge Common as well, my so, so very dearest and darling sister and friend, Patricia!!!!! 🙂 Sistahfriend, your very vivid description has just inspired me with such envisioning in my very fired imagination for this very picturesque and scenic sight, Patricia!!!! 🙂 I love how you very aptly describe the detailed and thorough planning which went into how the multi-lanes streets were formerly paths leading to sources of water just ripe for the best places to fish and perfectly planned and organized so that the higher ground wouldn’t flood out in the spring. I so love how you talk of here how the indigenous people had such a spirit and life connection to this great network of Nature’s finest here helping them to live, thrive, and survive. sister! They had such a great source of fresh water. I just so enjoy, love, like, and appreciate how you share and declare here regarding the mighty Charles River. my so, so very dearest and darling friend! It’s such great fun learning that the Cambridge Common had once been the communal place for the sweet pasture for cows, sisterfriend. Sister, I can just almost hear the lovely and enrapturing, glorious sounds of the church bells ringing from the other side of the Commons. Wow, I thank-YOU so, so very much, so, so very profusely, kindly, dearly, and deeply, too, for how you have as usual as always very generously and graciously provided a great link this time to the very energizing link to the Water Is Life Movement information. Sisterfriend, I’d not heard of this before, Patricia!!!! WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!! WOW, Patricia, as usual as always I find out and learn such marvelous and beneficial information from YOU, sister!!!! I signed up for my email subscription with the Water Is Life Movement and I followed on Facebook liking their page and also followed on Twitter. WOW, Patricia, it’s just wonderful being connecting to the life-enhancing and spirit-enhancing Water Is Life Movement, Patricia!!!!! I’m just so, so very grateful to YOU, Patricia, for providing for me and each and every one of us the astounding link to this spirit and Spirit-filled information, sistah!!!!! 🙂 <3
Sisterfriend, I can just tell and feel all of the lovingly heartfelt and sensitively caring prayers and thoughts YOU, sister, have for me, Patricia, and from each and every one of you!!!!! YOU all and this just mean so, so very much to me and I just so, so very much love and cherish YOU, Patricia, and each and every one of you!!!! I sure do need all of these very uplifting and inspiring prayers and thoughts and they are for sure helping me!!!!! I pray for and think of daily and very frequently YOU, my so, so precious, dear, dearest Patricia, your so very dearest and darling husband, your Loved One in the long term care facility, your very awesome children, your very special and blessed grandchildren, your amazing siblings, for all of the rest of your very special family, for your so,so very blessedly holy and pure in heart friendsfamily at your Friends Meeting at Cambridge, for your dedicated yoga friends, and, in fact, for each and every one of your so cool in spirit and Spirit friends with me sending to you all such deeply loving and sincere, strong positive energy!!!!! I pray without ceasing for each and every one of you and it is such great fun for me, too, to do so being my very joy, honor, blessing, and pleasure, Patricia!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sistahfriend, now I feel even better and brighter with even more greatly added cheer after very joyfully reading this so chock full of fun blog post article and very joyously responding with my very heartfelt, detailed, and thorough thoughts, ideas, and comments!!!!! Now I'm even more renewed, re-energized, rejuvenated, and reinvigorated being very inspired and uplifted by absolutely FANTASTIC YOU, my friend, and your very emboldening and encouraging writing here!!!!! Sister, I thank YOU and Spirit continually for YOU, sisterfriend Patricia, and for YOUR very presence in my life!!!!!! YAY for YOU, Patricia!!!! YAY for our very sisterhood and friendship, Patricia!!!! WOW!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!! I just so, so very much appreciate YOU, Patricia!!!!! Please have such a superbly super Saturday, such a wondrously wonderful rest of your weekend, and may all of your very days be so, so very especially blessed!!!!! 🙂 <3 Jesus so, so very much loves and cherishes YOU, Patricia, and so do I A WHOLE BUNCH, my so, so very dear friend and sister of mine!!!!! Patricia, you are just the very greatest and best and my eternal blessing as you are as well for so, so very many other folks!!!!! Patricia, YOU are my very joy and blessing, friend and sister of mine For Always and my earthly life and eternal blessing, too!!!!! 🙂 <3
Very Warmly and Sincerely For Always, my so, so very For Always dearly precious and awesomely special For Always soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker white woman who you're For Always so, so very much, Patricia, with My and Jesus's Very Peace and Love For You For Always, friend of mine, and with Such Blessings and Such Very Even More Blessings For You For Always, sister of mine,
Yours For Always soul sisterfriend Christian black woman and For Always in the very great spirit of unity and solidarity, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa