Stepping stones – anywhere, any time

Every day in this old town we unwittingly trace the footsteps of a hundred journeys, big and small, momentous and redundant, historic and personal. Anne Barry Jolles’ ‘Grace Trail’ is one more that, intentionally or not, you may find yourself following, reflecting upon.

Today it is more likely that you come to the Plymouth waterfront for recreation, not on an economic or religious quest.

You’re here to let your children play in Nelson Park’s fountains, to watch young osprey test their wings, or simply to get out from behind your desk and stretch your legs on the rail trail that links the downtown to North Plymouth.

But if you’ve walked along those tracks you may have followed in her footsteps and never noticed Jolles’ stones half hidden in the grass.

But then, one day, there at your feet…

GRATITUDE

Jolles herself didn’t know the way, at first. But slowly, over more than a decade, the trail began to appear.

The words came first, the stones much later.

“My family was struggling,” Jolles recalled. “Both of my parents were passing away at the same time. I had really lost my bounce in life, and I kept saying that I needed to step into a state of grace. I didn’t even know what that meant. I just knew that next to me, somewhere, though I couldn’t find it, was a quieter spot, where I could probably function and be more at peace.”

Then, in the simple word grace, Jolles perceived five other words: gratitude, release, acceptance, challenge and embrace.

She began to meditate on those words, each one posed as a question. What was there, even in her pain, that she could be grateful for; what things did she just need to release, or to accept?

“What’s your challenge, I also asked myself,” Jolles said, “and sometimes the answer was as easy as ‘put on your sneakers and get going.’ Sometimes there were bigger challenges. But the best one, the best question was, ‘What can you embrace as possible,’ because when you do that you can step over the details of your life and step into the world of possibilities.”

Those were the words, but the stones came much later, a decade later when her son was a soldier in Afghanistan and she and her husband had moved to the waterfront in North Plymouth.

RELEASE

“It’s harder now,” Jolles said, remembering those times, “harder to be a parent of a soldier, because when they are in combat you still can actually talk with them. It’s one thing to know about it, but it's quite another to see it, hear it.

“When your kids, or anyone’s kids, go into a dark and dangerous place, it's just a horrifying experience,” Jolles said. “Its not just parents, it’s anyone who loves anyone who is in peril, or struggling, or received a bad diagnosis. I think we are all in the same club when it comes to trying to get through hard times.”

So she had the words, but even they seemed impotent against the sounds and sights of war that, though she tried not to ignore them, came over the line when she would speak with her son.

“Then I came across an article about the Appalachian Trail, an article that began by asking the question, ‘Who is hiking the trail these days?’

The answer, she discovered, was veterans.

“Veterans were walking the Appalachian Trail, the article said, trying to walk off their war. Wow. I loved that. But, I thought, where can I go to walk off my war? I couldn’t get to Maine or Georgia, to walk the Appalachian Trail. I couldn’t get to the west coast to, like Reece Witherspoon in the movie "Wild,' walk the Pacific Trail.

ACCEPTANCE

“Really I don’t remember exactly how it happened, or when,” Jolles said, “but the thought came to me, what if I make my own trail, a grace trail, and before I knew what I was doing I began to pick up beach stones, drop them along the walk.”

The trail itself has natural pauses. At the start of course, then the dirt path that leads where the public can access the beach, at the entrance to the mowed walk through the northern corner of the Holmes Reservation, another stone on the left when you turn back along Robbins Road and then, on the rail trail on the last leg of the walk.

Today “grace” is spelled out along the trail with large stones that mark the five segments.

The words and the walk – the two together made all the difference, Jolles said.

Now Jolles also makes little stones for each section, and offers bags of stones on her website – Gracetrail.com – stones on which the five words are embellished.

“You can take one of the smaller stones, or leave a stone,” Jolles said. It’s catching on beautifully too.”

In her work as a life coach Jolles now uses the trail, or the concept, during workshops, speaking to cancer survivors, talking with people struggling with addiction and in many other settings.

Some people make their own trail, just outside or even inside their homes.

“There are people making their own grace trails all over the country right now. I know of one woman who has made a grace trail in her garden, bought little ceramic birds and written the words on them.

“Another woman keeps the five stones, the grace stones, on her kitchen window sill so when she is preparing meals she can walk the grace trail in her mind.

“So not only has the Grace Trail helped me and my family, but its now helping people all over the place, which is so exciting.”

CHALLENGE

Jolles emphasizes that she isn’t providing answers or claiming any special insights. She is simply offering an idea, a few words, and a trail that others, perhaps with a little encouragement, can follow on their own.

It’s not a difficult concept to master, she said. It doesn’t require you to enroll in a course of studies. There are no mountains to climb, though, Jolles noted, life can often feel that way.

It’s just a mile in length, with no real rough terrain, just long enough, Jolles said, to find a nice, easy, restful pace.

It’s beautiful, too.

“How often do you get to be in a beautiful field, and just be there,” Jolles said, standing in the Holmes Reservation, looking back toward the water. ”Look at how fabulous it is, with this meandering trail, and that gorgeous tree and the ocean in the background. This is it, this moment is beautiful. It doesn’t get any better than this.”

“I want to say, though, that you don’t have to come to Plymouth to walk the trail. I don’t want busloads of people pulling up,” Jolles said, laughing. “This is just one suggested route.”

EMBRACE

You can walk the trail anywhere, but still, Jolles says, this spot, this trail along the waterfront is special in and of itself.

“Even without the stones, even without the questions I feel this is sacred ground,” Jolles said as the sun began to rise above the homes along the waterfront. “Just to walk here you can’t help but be filled with awe. If you do nothing else but get out and walk that’s a special meditation in itself, a slow repetitive, quiet immersion in nature.”

It is remarkable how quickly the trail leaves everything behind.

To one side as you begin the old, rusted rails of the Old Colony line, half-immersed in grass and sand, can still be seen

A few minutes later on the other side, down a trail to the water, the gnarled fingers of an abandoned pier rise out of the sea, a reminder of the days when the sea was crisscrossed a thousand times a day.

Then the meandering matted grass path through the field, alive with grasshopper and wildflower.

“We have to grab these moments as often as possible, or make them happen as often as possible,” Jolles said, “by just getting out and walking your own grace trail, anywhere, anytime.”

Gratitude, release, acceptance, challenge, embrace.

Follow Frank Mand on Twitter @frankmandOCM.