RichardHowe.com – Voices from Lowell & Beyond

Gates Block Garden

Gates Block Garden

By Leo Racicot

Every year, I can hardly wait to shake off the ice and snow of winter and head down to Gates Block Garden on Market Street to see what the soil has yielded. Gates Block Garden is an enchanting aerie located at 307 Market Street, sandwiched between Mochinut Bakery and Cafe and The Arts League of Lowell Gallery (ALL). I stumbled upon the garden one Spring Day not knowing it was there and was amazed, as I am to this day, by the ever-changing variety of flora and fauna the caretakers manage to plant. No week is ever the same in this little piece of stretch of heaven. In fact, no day is ever the same, given whichever daily slant of light is infusing the place, depending on the weather. I’ve spent hours in its company, enjoying my own company with a book and especially with a camera raised to snap photos of the many different flowers, bulbed wonders, climbing ivies I find. No summer is the same as the previous summer. I liken the space to a kaleidoscope with its ever-revolving colors, each turn of the cylinder revealing something that wasn’t there a moment ago, In fact, at times, the garden has showcased large shards of mirror that catch the day’s sun and through which I’ve aimed my lens, capturing the reflection of the shops opposite, the cars driving by. The location is ideal as a starting point for a walking tour; the Whistler Museum & Whistler Park are a stone’s throw away, as is North Common Village with its own pretty garden plots. I also point my camera at these. They put me in mind of quaint old English villages such as the ones you find in Miss Marple mysteries. Lowell National Park’s Headquarters isn’t far in the other direction. I never get tired of stopping in there for its free recordings of Jack Kerouac reading his work. Just put on a headset and listen to your heart’s content to literary history.

The appearance a couple of years ago of gigantic murals hovering above Block Garden are breathtaking though I sometimes think they’re too big and dwarf the wonders below. I do like them and always like taking as many photos of them as I can.

Nobody for years seemed to know about this garden. I knew it as a place I could go any time of day and unwind. There are times I’ve been so bowled over by what I saw there, the different configurations, a tiny group of bluebells hiding in a corner, a sculpture, a single rose that I literally took a picture of everything, one-by-one. I’d get swept away by these moments of joy and not want to leave. Of special note was finding my friend, Lowell artist and poet, Stephan Anstey’s poem inscribed on a cinder block in one corner, a lovely free verse that perfectly summing up the city of Lowell in a line or two.

Hidden urban gardens have always delighted me.  When you’re walking along taking in what is maybe too much city, too much red brick, too little view of the sky, there’s a quality of surprise when out-of-nowhere, you spy a pocket of sudden color that roots you to the spot. Instantly the tenor of your day is changed. You literally find yourself again…

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A riot of color

Garden mirrors, 2020

Gates Block Garden entrance

Mirror reflection

Peony

Sunflower

The garden, 2021

Trompe-l’oil windows wall

Mural of woman drumming

Poem by Stephan Anstey

Happy Juneteenth 2026

This post originally appeared on this site on June 18, 2023.

Juneteenth traces its roots to June 19, 1865, when United States Army General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, a full two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln. With General Order No. 3, Granger proclaimed that all slaves in Texas were free.

In the years following the initial announcement, Juneteenth became a time for African Americans to gather and celebrate their newfound freedom. These celebrations often included community gatherings, church services, parades, music, and speeches.

Juneteenth symbolized the end of slavery in the United States and was a reminder of the long struggle for freedom endured by enslaved African Americans. Juneteenth also signified the Post Civil War beginning of what was seen by many as a new era of equality and civil rights began to materialize for African Americans.

Despite being observed in African American communities for over a century, Juneteenth did not gain widespread recognition until recent years. Efforts to establish Juneteenth as a national holiday gained momentum in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, driven by activists, community organizations, and political leaders.

On June 19, 2021, Juneteenth took a significant step forward as the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. The bill was later signed into law by President Joe Biden, officially designating Juneteenth National Independence Day as a federal holiday. This historic decision acknowledged the importance of Juneteenth as a national commemoration and recognized the need to reckon with America’s complex history of slavery.

Juneteenth is also an appropriate time for all of us to acknowledge the insidious role that slavery played in the development of the United States, and of how the country still struggles with that reality. Furthermore, starting with the Reconstruction Acts that followed the Civil War and continuing up until the present, every time the United States has moved towards becoming a true egalitarian, multiracial, pluralistic democracy, reactionary forces rise to defend traditional hierarchies of race (and of gender, religion, and wealth). We’re amid one of those struggles now, and the outcome is far from certain.

Living Madly: Making Life “Easier” Won’t Make You Happier

View from the summit of South Twin, White Mountains, New Hampshire, November 2024. Photo by Emilie-Noelle Provost

Living Madly: Making Life “Easier” Won’t Make You Happier

By Emilie-Noelle Provost

Life can be a grind. Working, meal planning, cooking, grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, paying bills—all of it wears me out sometimes.

Even doing activities I enjoy often requires a fair amount of effort and planning.

Hiking in the White Mountains, for example, is one of my favorite things to do. But hiking safely takes a lot of work. The day before a hike, I check weather reports repeatedly so I can pack and organize my backpack accordingly. I make lightweight, nutritious meals and snacks that won’t go bad on the trail. I make sure I have an adequate amount of water, rain gear, sunscreen, bug spray, an extra change of clothes, a first-aid kit, a headlamp. The list of essentials is long. On top of all that, I often have to be up and on the road by six a.m. in order to give myself enough daylight hours to complete whatever hike I’m hoping to do.

Sometimes, all this effort feels like too much. There are days that I just want to sleep in, relax, and not do anything strenuous or that requires too much thought.

Once in a while, this is OK. Everyone needs to rest at times. But I’ve discovered that there’s a limit to the amount sleeping in I can do before I start feeling restless and bored, even kind of depressed. When I pull myself together and get back on the trail, I always feel much better. I feel happy, much happier than if I hadn’t done a bunch of planning and packing and driving and dragged myself out of bed at the crack of dawn to climb a 4,000-foot-tall pile of rocks.

This led me to wonder about the connection between happiness and effort. And as it turns out, being happy requires us to get off of our butts.

Not everything you do that involves work makes you happy, of course. But putting effort into things that have been proven to make people’s lives richer and more meaningful, such as maintaining close friendships, pursing hobbies, volunteering, or achieving a personal goal, will almost always make you happier than sitting on the couch binge-watching old episodes of Downtown Abbey will (not that there’s anything wrong with Downton Abbey).

According to a recent Upworthy.com article, people are happiest when they avoid the urge to seek relaxation and instead make an effort to get out of their comfort zones. Tod Perry, the article’s author, cites a 1980s study conducted by Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which determined that people are happiest when they are engaged in “optimal experiences.”

An optimal experience, according to Csikszentmihalyi, is one that requires all of one’s mental concentration and physical effort. Like hiking, for example. Other optimal activities mentioned by Csikszentmihalyi include playing basketball, learning to play a musical instrument, practicing yoga, and enjoying dinner with close friends.

By contrast, Csikszentmihalyi says that excess comfort often results in feelings of boredom, anxiety, guilt, or uselessness, and can eventually lead to depression and even substance abuse and eating disorders.

This is because evolution wired our brains to seek out and learn from new experiences. Visiting new places, meeting new people, and learning new skills all make us happy because they keep our brains active and healthy. These things also help us form new memories, help keep us motivated, make us more mentally and emotionally flexible, and add to our personal libraries of skills and knowledge—all things that make us feel good.

I think Yvon Chouinard, Maine native, rock climber, and founder of Patagonia, summed it up well when he said, “I’ve found the cure for depression is action.”

So, the next time you’re feeling lazy or burned out and are tempted to spend the afternoon on the couch, resist the urge and find something else to do: Call a friend, pick up a book, go for a hike. It might feel like work at first, but you’ll be much happier for it.

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Émilie-Noëlle Provost is the author of The River Is Everywhere, a National Indie Excellence Award, American Fiction Award, and American Legacy Award finalist, and The Blue Bottle, a middle-grade adventure with sea monsters. Visit her at emilienoelleprovost.com.

Seen & Heard: Vol. 24

Visited: Boott Cotton Mills Museum – With out of town guests expressing interest in Lowell’s history, we all headed to the Boott Cotton Mills Museum this week. Admission is $6 for adults and $4 for seniors. A demonstration in the weave room takes place every 30 minutes and lasts for 15. An NPS person explains how the looms worked then they start up a dozen of them so you can see them in action. When this museum first opened in the late 1980s, all 80 looms in the weave room ran simultaneously. The concept was that if you saw one in operation, you’d see how a loom worked, but if you stood in a room with 80 looms running, you’d have a better feel for the experience of the workers. I can attest to that. With all running, the noise and vibration were very powerful and imaging dealing with that all day made a strong impression. The exhibits on the second floor came next. I always find something interesting that I missed on prior trips (or they rotate the artifacts on display). Under a portrait of Daniel Webster, the wall text explained that in 1820, the US government established something called the “Spanish Claims Commission” and funded it with $5 million. This was a mechanism for ship owners who  lost vessels or cargo to Spanish pirates. Webster represented many Boston Merchants before the commission and won more than $1 million of the $6 million total for his clients, some of whom used the money to fund a textile mill in Waltham and then the early mills in Lowell. I was looking forward to seeing the NPS film on Lowell but the theater was roped off. Blocking the entrance was a sign that read in part, “Please let us know (with a link to a website) if you have identified any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.”

YouTube: Spurs at Knicks Game 4 Highlights – I confess. I’m a closet New York Knicks fan. I would always prefer the Celtics but once they are out of the picture, I like the Knicks. That might go back to the early 1970s when they twice won the NBA championship with Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere and others. That team crushed my spirits in one of those playoffs by defeating the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals, but that was mostly because Celtics legend John Havlicek injured his shoulder and had to play one handed. Scrapiness seems like an overused word but it fit those Knicks teams. Fast forward to this iteration, last year I watched more live NBA than I do now (which is basically none due to other priorities) and really liked the present team. That could be influenced by three Knicks starters being Villanova graduates and my fondness for that school dates back to its entry into Big East Basketball in 1980, my first year at Providence College which was a founding team in that conference when it was born the year before. Also, I really like cities and resent how many Americans trash urban living. NYC is always the star of both sides of that show, and I feel defensive about the place and want it to succeed. (The Yankees and Mets are fine, I’m ambivalent about the Rangers, and am happy to see the Giants and Jets flounder in their current manifestations). As much as I want the Knicks to win the championship, I didn’t mind them losing game three, mostly for tangential reasons (i.e., a certain VIP who attended the game). In Game 4, the Knicks were down by as much as 29 at some point, but San Antonio kept tossing up 3-point shots and, as the Celtics showed us, teams that live by the 3 pointer also die by the 3 pointer when they don’t go in. The frequent misses gave the Knicks just enough time to close that big gap. A last second Knick shot bounced out of the rim, seeking to save the Spurs from ignominious defeat, but a Knicks player timed his jump perfectly and delicately tipped the ball in the basket with 1.8 seconds to go, sealing an historic come from behind victory for New York. 

Newspaper: “It’s doubtful Boston will enjoy hosting” by Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe, June 11, 2026. I wanted to include something about the World Cup, which in the past I’ve really enjoyed, but somehow this year when it’s right here in this hemisphere with games being played here in the Commonwealth, I find myself not that interested. Consequently, Shaughnessy’s standard cynical take fits the zeitgeist of the moment. He accurately observes that despite hundreds of thousands of US young people growing up playing soccer – something he finds praiseworthy because of the egalitarianist nature of youth soccer – that has never translated into “ticket-buying fandoms” which is true. The New England Revolution team has played here for 30 years but we’ve never followed that team with anywhere the intensity we grant the Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox and Patriots. As Shaughnessy put it, “Sadly, our reaction to the World Cup runs the gamut from annoyance to apathy.” Personally, I’m perplexed by my current attitude. Four years ago, I paid close attention to the World Cup and watched several matches in the entirety. I discovered that to enjoy soccer, you must watch all of it. With other sports, you can be reading or scrolling through your phone while the action unscrolls. If something big happens, you hear the cheers and are assured you’ll see a reply and commentary in an instant. But soccer doesn’t stop so there are few replays. Plus, soccer will be very boring with nothing happening for long stretches of a time and then in an instant, something incredibly interesting and exciting happens but it’s over in a flash. If you haven’t been watching all along, you miss all the context which adds real value to the high points. At least that’s my take. Maybe I’m just at a point in my life where I’m not that into sports. I won’t get into the reasons for that other than to say there is so much else I’d rather be doing, live sports has faded away from my areas of interest.

Newspaper: “Freedom Trail, at 75” by Ariela Lopez, Boston Globe, June 11, 2026. The Freedom Trail, a red bricked path that connects 16 colonial-era historic sites in Boston, was dedicated on June 11, 1951. Originally, signs on street corners guided visitors along the Trail. In 1958, the city painted a red path on the sidewalk as a guide. In the 1990s, the painted line was replaced by embedded red bricks which is how it stands today. More than 4 million people travel the Freedom Trail each year. Personally, between my own immersion in local history and Google maps on my phone, it’s been a long time since I even noticed the red brick trail despite being on and near the Trail with some frequency. But tourists seem to love the ease of navigation that it affords. Reading this article brought to mind a push in Lowell several years ago to create a similar line on downtown sidewalks that would guide visitors around the many historic sites in the city, especially the route from the National Park Visitor Center on Market Street to the Boott Cotton Mills museum on John Street. Those of us who live here know the route well, but it’s not as intuitive for an out-of-town visitor and the little confidence boost that would come from a visual trail to follow might mean the difference between a visitor limiting their stay to Market Street and not experiencing or seeing all the other things the city has to offer.