boston.

i had started to draft this post on sunday. obviously, everyone now knows the marathon was on monday. it was patriots day, our first patriots day here. did not know that was a holiday until recently. the town we live in started hanging flags over the weekend and philip initially thought it was in preparation for memorial day. saturday we had a trip planned into the city to see Philip's family who had come in town to watch a cousin run. we took the T in and had a great day. Jude really does pretty well in the city - happy to sit in his stroller and look around. 

we got off the T here. which is still a wow for me. this was the site of the boston massacre. and i am starting to know my way around, which makes us feel like locals even though we have been here less than a year. 

we went to lunch at the union oyster house - the oldest restaurant in the country still in operation...pretty crazy. they have a booth called the kennedy booth because JFK loved to eat in privacy in this booth. 

we walked around the city for a few hours - stopping by bunker hill to let Jude run around some. (side note, looks like the washington monument - have heard it was built first here, not sure though)

there was an excitement in the city preparing for the race. yellow and blue jackets symbolizing you were running scattered through the crowds. i love watching races. i even sort of love running races. i ran cross country and track in high school and ran a marathon at the end of college. now whenever i watch races, it makes me want to start running again. don't hold me to that though. 

we have some friends in the city and we had a friend coming to run. we had considered coming back in town and on monday to see them, but then our judgement as tired parents was - i don't think judah will like sitting there watching...it will be crazy on the T...

so we did not go. and we are so grateful. i know that the likelihood of us being anywhere near the bombings would have been so slim, but we would have taken the train and the chaos and fear that people endured while in the city the on monday sounds terrifying. 

so today, i am grateful. grateful that God spared us of that. thankful that while this was all happening my sweet boy was napping at home in his crib. and sad for others that were not spared this tragedy. sad that this begets fear. and that i will be slower to spontaneously take a trip into the city because of the uncertainty of what went on and the unknown of why. and we want to know why, but does it really help? there is no good reason for this. 

we live in a fallen, broken world. but there is hope. hatred does not win. i love this quote by mr. rogers that you have probably seen circulating... “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

and more than that, i believe there is a God of peace that desires justice in this and his heart is even more broken over this tragedy than we are. and that he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. (psalm 147:3).