I Walked 40 Miles — To Walden Pond And Back — In One Day. Here's Why
for WBUR Cognoscenti, July 2021
“At dawn, I set off to walk 40 miles. It's summer in New England and the sky is a pale pastel. Off the quiet Somerville street where I’ve found a temporary home with a friend, the morning traffic is humming to a slow start, and the first Dunkin’ customers are groggily pulling into half-empty lots. My cellphone buzzes. The leaves on the Minuteman path sway like green tendrils just as my mother, on the phone from China and ready for bed, says in a strangled voice:
‘You’re doing what?’
‘Walking to Walden Pond and back. I’m raising money for the National Immigration Law Center.’
I’ve walked long distances before, but this is a record. I want to tell my mother: you don’t know how often I walk alone, and very far, aimlessly. When many retreated to their family homes during the pandemic, I could not — I have no family in the U.S. I made it through six months in a cheap monthly rental in Inman Square, then drifted in and out of temporary stays with friends. When I walk, the miles help settle the swirling thoughts that drive me outwards: a yearning to feel at home in my body, because there is nowhere else to call home.”