I hadn’t visited any other towns on my Meditate Mass 351 Challenge for a few weeks as I was really behind in my posting of the towns I had visited. I’ve recently gotten a bit caught up and as I was schedule to an event at my friend Maureen’s in Grafton, I figured i should pass up this opportunity to add it to the list.
I’ve been in Grafton many times visiting Maureen, but it’s also the next town to Upton where my brother lives, so I’ve driven through it many times when we’ve left from there to go to other places. I had been dealing with a really nasty Spring flu, but I could take a few minutes to check out the cute town center. I had seen the many businesses on Route 122 that comes from Worcester and goes by the Massachusetts Turnpike and through the town on its way toward Providence, but there was the cute town center I had never stopped in and that was my destination.
There were signs there for the Blackstone Valley National Heritage Corridor, and it explained that this was an example of a “hilltop center” where the town center was higher than the surrounding town, which I think would make sense when most of Massachusetts was deforested and you could see for miles. It has a cute gazebo and a number if churches, including the UU Church where my friend Roger is the minister. There are a couple of stores, but they all just meld into the architecture of the surrounding buildings. Not a McDonald’s to be seen.
It reminded me a bit of Sturbridge where the commercial area of town was long moved to a different part of town. This town center wasn’t trying to be anything that it wasn’t. I know there are other villages in the town, and I remember them to be the same.
So, where are those areas of your life that you strive to be more, and where are those areas you are content?