The condo is in disarray, the van is partially packed and in a couple days we’ll be waving goodbye to our favorite city on the east coast. Summer in Boston has been both energizing and over-stimulating, an odd combination of paradoxical states to exist in one body. But for me, both are very real.
Walking around MIT and visiting their museums, hibernating in the Harvard Coop and shopping the Square, walking on the Esplanade while Bella swims in the river and chases squirrels, attending concerts and shows by world class performers – and being able to go everywhere on public transportation – all very energizing experiences. 
There’s an intellectual aliveness in this city, the home of a couple hundred colleges and universities – including ivy leaguers. And athleticism is everywhere and represented by all age groups. It’s flat out invigorating to be in a city where intellect and fitness interact so organically.
New England is a diverse vacation spot too. 90 minutes from Boston you can be on Cape Cod and an hour’s ferry takes you to Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket. Then, of course, rural Maine is right up the road and pastoral Vermont is just a couple hour’s drive. 
New Hampshire, close by too. I had the opportunity to spend a week on the Cape and take a short trip to a friend’s sheep farm in Vermont that offered million dollar views of rolling hills for miles in all directions. 
I love this part of the country for all those reasons.
I’m also exhausted from the experience. City life is loud, busy, fast and relentless. We were staying at the intersection of two very busy throughways in town, and in front of a bustling expressway. Those are also reasons why it’s so easy to get around town. But the non-stop cacophony of traffic, horns, sirens is trying on the nerves and my patience level was tested to the max each day by cyclists who think they’re above traffic laws and buses speeding past cars and just assuming the lanes belong to them. 
Straying from a walking path by a foot or so might cause a rear end collision from a roller skater, runner and cyclist in a real hurry to go somewhere but who doesn’t think it’s necessary to alert anyone he’s about to whiz past. And this was during the “off” summer season. Imagine the craziness when kids come back to school, soon.
Once upon a time, this lifestyle was my lifestyle and Boston was home for a few years. It felt perfectly normal then to be part of the hustle bustle of this busy town. But somehow, as my system has adapted to warmer seasons, so too has my need for peace and quietude. Since living in a heavily wooded community in a much smaller southern city – or as I call it, a town – I seem to thrive on living life more slowly. I’m happier, more content and, frankly, feel more at home. So while Boston offered a really fun summer, it’s time now to come home and resume a life that’s a bit more ratcheted down.
Maybe age has something to do with it, though many active folks my age in Boston thrive on the go, go, go. I think my go, go, go years are behind me. After a very fortunate, fulfilling and successful career, I’ve retired. And now it feels time to live life a little smaller. A bit more pensively, experiencing adventure in a slower, richer way.
So – bye bye Boston, for now, anyway. My husband keeps devising ways to spend more summers here – maybe we will, maybe we won’t. But I do know that living here for good is likely not in my cards. And I love this city. That would be my paradox
actthreedotnet 
The View From My Bike
Posted in activity, bike riding, exercise, recreation, retirement, Uncategorized, tagged baby boomer, baby boomers, blogging, boomer women, boomers, commentary, Cycling, exercise, freshly pressed, life, new life experiences, observation, over 50, personal growth, recreation, self improvement, women over 50 on September 17, 2011| 3 Comments »
Image by Casey David via Flick
“just relax. take it all in. and live life until you burst at the seams.” Casey Taylor
Life’s perspective changes on a bicycle, especially after age 50 as I rediscover the joys of pedaling. It used to be my transportation as a kid, a way to see girlfriends who lived near by, or to the dreaded piano lessons (after a quick stop at the grocery to snatch the Tastykake 3 pack of chocolate cupcakes. They were my favorite and eased the pain of an hour of scales at Mrs. Heston’s house). I also rode my bike to the community pool down the street to see if the cute boy I adored was there that day.
Image via Wikipedia
But all that seemed to stop when I got my license because then I could drive to all those places (except the pool, now the cute boy I adored worked at the gas station a couple miles away).
There are wildflowers growing, creatures scurrying and children playing, each to their individual rhythms.
I started riding a bike, regularly, a little more than a year ago when I borrowed my sister-in-law’s up in Boston last summer. It’s the perfect town; all thruways accommodate cyclists. There are bike lanes on all the roads and a pathway that stretches along the Charles River on both the Boston and Cambridge sides. Because the area is flat just about everywhere, it’s a rider’s paradise. Taking my bike out was as easy as going out the back door and down the Mass Ave bridge ramp onto the esplanade. I was hooked.
Image via Wikipedia
In Tennessee I hook the bike to the back of my car and then take off to a number of greenways nearby. And those I discovered because I had to find places to ride, away from the roads and steep hills in my neighborhood. It offers a wonderful form of exercise and opportunities to be with friends. Knoxville looks like a completely different city from the seat of a bicycle.
But the best part of all?
All of it. Riding my bike makes me happy. Seeing people and creatures live life reminds me what living is all about. That we all have a finite number of years in this human form, and one shot at it. I don’t want to “wish I had.” I want to do.
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