This morning I met with a dear friend at a coffee shop along the wharf in Boston. Blue sky and warm temperatures had us both exclaiming with delight as we sat outside drinking coffee and eating croissants. Our conversation went from Afghanistan to Islam to culture to cultural schizophrenia to the U.S election to Boston and back around again. Though much younger than me, we share our hearts during these times together, finding solace in mutual understanding.
We said goodbye by the bridge that separates the North End of Boston from Charlestown and I headed back home.
I soon found myself in an unfamiliar park and was just about to check my phone for directions when I spied the brick path that identifies Boston's famed Freedom Trail.
Family and friends who come visit Boston always ask us about the Freedom Trail. Boston's Freedom Trail is not a hike in the woods as some mistakenly think when they first arrive. Instead, it's a path that winds through the city taking you to famous sites along the way. Every step of the path leads you into a story from the past and you find yourself immersed in America's beginnings and fight for freedom.
Churches, museums, graveyards, and a ship are just a few of the treasured sites along the way. The trail begins at Boston Common and takes you 2.5 miles to an ending point at Bunker Hill Monument, an 11 minute walk from our house in Charlestown.
I smiled with relief as I found the Freedom Trail! I now knew where I was! I had a reference point and could follow the path. Instead of feeling a sense of confusion and disorientation, I felt safe and secure. If I just followed the brick path I knew exactly how to get home.
As I walked I thought about how weary and lost I have felt. I thought about the disorienation and lostness I feel when I sink into the abyss of discontent fueled by social media and the isolation it can create. I thought about how tired the world feels with this pandemic. And then I thought about the freedom that a known path allows, even when it winds and twists and turns.
I think a lot of us are feeling lost. We don't know how to plan and how to walk forward. While the pandemic and the changed plans that it has brought is part of the reason, each of us have our own private reasons as well. These public challenges just make our private worlds more complicated.
Weary. Lost. Frustrated. Sad. Angry. Confused. Disoriented. These are just a few of the words that I have shared with friends and they have shared with me about this time. How do you find your way when there are so many twists and turns?
This is when I know I have to go back to the beginning. My life is recentered by remembering that my story, small as it is, is important and fits into a bigger story. As the Freedom Trail is to American history, so is my story to this bigger story. It's small, but remembering it can remind me how to get home. I have churches and graveyards, ships and museums in my story as well.
As I remember my story, I remember who I am. More importantly, I remember whose I am.
The solid brick path of the Freedom Trail showed me the way today.Somehow, it also centered me in my story. As I walked the trail, I remembered who I was. The Freedom Trail brought me home.
