Day 645 Roots

 

Walking along my bike path I always stop on the footbridge to look down onto my beautiful river. The Saugatucket river runs right into downtown Wakefield from my backyard and is loaded with wildlife. Watching a great blue heron swoop down for a fish, families of ducks gliding along the shore and turtles sunbathing on protruding logs are a few of my favorite sights. The river width and depth fluctuates from narrow to moderately wide and shallow to fairly deep so canoeing can be tricky but is always worth the adventure. My grandsons enjoy canoeing with me all the way to the dam at Main St. where people walking along the shore holler out to us to watch out for the waterfall as if we're unaware of it. Each canoe ride also has us wishing we'd bring money to stop for an ice cream, tie the canoe up on the dock for a quick visit for a treat. The Narragansett Indian tribe named the river, the word Saugatucket means at the outlet of the tidal river. I love that so many of the Native American names of rivers, towns and various landmarks are still used today. Several footbridges along the bike path allow me opportunities to stop and soak in its beauty and I never miss the chance. It's the same river my dad would stop and watch on his walk to school each day as well as my great grandfather and his father. My grandparents families each settled in my town in the 1600's, unaware that the roots they were putting down would grow deep. I doubt they imagined hundreds of years later their ancestors would still be living in the same town, gazing down at the same river. Maybe this is one of the reasons I am so confident, deep roots give me strength and security, knowing I'm exactly where I belong. People move from town to town or to different states and countries while I sit here in my happy place, fully confident that there isn't a better place on earth, at least for me.