Enjoy a short video - Oregon to Chicago

It is always a bit difficult saying goodbye to friends, old and new, as we leave a town or city where we were treated so generously. Leaving Boston, we said our fond farewells to Sangati and Begabati who took us in and fed us sumptuously. Our first stop was in Dedham at the Noble and Greenough School Day Camp. There were about 400 children eagerly awaiting our arrival at the playing fields behind this very large and beautiful campus. We are grateful to the administrators who worked us into their daily program and organized a wonderful event for us to share our experiences briefly with all present there.

After our introductions and song, we had the ‘Harmony Train’ with selected runners from all the various groups of children. The ‘train’ with the Torch in front, wound around the field as the children cheered and our theme song played on the loudspeakers. It made for an exciting way to leave the campus with yet another powerful experience of harmony and joy to share with everyone.

Running south, we soon reached the border of the next state which is also our next to last state of the 48 we are running through. In Rhode Island, the smallest state in the Union, we were met by police officer Kolek who escorted the runner all the way through the town of Cumberland. Reaching the south side of Cumberland, we were greeted by Mayor David Iwuc on the bridge between Cumberland and Central Falls. This bridge was the first bridge dedicated to the work of Sri Chinmoy towards harmony in the world back in 1989. Mayor Iwuc was very enthusiastic as he greeted all the runners and everyone else present there. He even wore a World Harmony Run cap that he received last year when he welcomed the runners here. His energy and positive attitude gave us all a lift as we run through this small and beautiful state.

Not far down the road was another bridge where we met with a local YMCA group. This bridge was also dedicated to Harmony many years ago and now stands as a testament to the permanence of the local leaders who wish to bring about and keep harmony flourishing in their communities here. The children got to run around the nearby park with the Torch with some of the staff members who were all very enthusiastic and cheerful.

Our police escort continued out of Central Falls as the runners were joined by a local runner Dee, who has run with us many times in the past. We are so happy when locals get a chance to carry the Torch and experience the energy that it embodies from so many wishes and prayers and miles for harmony and goodwill.

Our last ceremony of the day was in Providence, the capital of Rhode Island. The runners were able to make it through the traffic to get to the City Hall due to the kindness of the police escorts there. They were greeted by Mayor David Cicilline and some of his staff who kindly welcomed the runners with a supportive message for the World Harmony Run as he has kindly done in the past as well. This time he carried the Torch as he ran with a couple of our runners including myself and Francesco, our Italian representative. After a short run with the local NBC affiliate taping it, Mayor Cicilline and Francesco had a short discussion in Italian to the delight of Francesco. The Mayor apologized for being a bit rusty in his Italian skills but he sounded great to me and even Francesco understood him quite well.

Our last team of runners ran out of Providence and finally reached the Connecticut State line, our last of 48 states on our route. Right at the line is a very nice body of water called Beach Pond that some of us took advantage of and swam in to cool down.

We then were treated to a wonderful accommodation at the Tamarack Lodge nearby. Frank Morosky, our good friend from Norwich, and Bill Champagne from Preston were both very generous in offering us these valuable rooms and dinner as well. After dinner they brought us to a local dairy where we had homemade ice cream from their own farm.

We are extremely grateful to Frank and Bill and all of our friends from Rhode Island, including Vijali, Sharani, Sharika, Khipra, Ganapati and others who helped organize this successful day and even raised some money to donate all this to us on our second to last day of this four month odyssey of harmony and love.

Arpan and Team Harmony

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