In the Spring of Life

The drive is familiar. I could do it with my eyes shut. Well almost. The Charles River wending its way from the Science Museum and the Longfellow Bridge past the Hatch Memorial Shell where Arthur Fiedler struck up the patriotic Pops to chime in America's birthday and fireworks burst overhead to the delight of 500,000 Bostonians celebration our Bicentennial. Tall ships in the Boston Harbor. A brave new world with no troops in southeast Asia. Ah memories. 1976. A lifetime ago when it was I poised on the cusp of a brave new me ... chomping at the bit to experience what life had in store. Oddly, I still am exploring the options. Imagining the possibilities. Dreaming of what might be. Of what is to come.

Back to today. Charlie and I are in our trusty Volvo wagon heading west on Storrow Drive back to Harvard and the remaining six weeks of his college career. Senior spring. Replete with parties and papers and best of friends celebrating before they embark toward their futures shedding the last vestiges of their childhoods. Confident young men and women. Lovely. Optimistic. Innocent.

We are enjoying a few final moments before classes resume and this Mom heads back north. The route gracefully winds along side the grassy promenade swarming with bikers, joggers and lovers hand in hand in this 'feels like summer' morning. Weeping willows along the Esplanade shimmer chartreuse. Bradford Pears boast their frothy white billows next to red buds trees aflame with, well, deep pink-red blossoms. Sugar magnolias burst forth pink plumes and dogwoods sway white lacy against the pastel blue skies filled with wisps of white clouds. Spring is arriving early this year. And nowhere is more glorious than in Boston. Along the Charles. In the Commons. And especially in the Public Gardens where freshly painted swan boats glide smoothly across the glassy pond.

As the river turns the bridge frames the end of Charlie's student life, the commencement. Three and a half decades ago I, too, made this journey. Albeit from the other side of the river. Lowell House tower comes into view. We are struck by the sheer beauty of this gorgeous spring day. Awed by the trajectory of his journey. Propelled by a quest that began years ago in an ivy covered brick building, his passion for the post colonial developing world ignited by Drs. Shaw and Quattlebaum when he was a Lower. A tenth grader who grabbed the opportunity to explore rich and ancient cultures connecting economic progression from one dot to the next.

Cheers to your dreams ... may they carry you comfortably ... and inspire your footsteps, with love.