Page 22 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2021 Sweet Dreams By Gini Pariseau I t was an especially dark night. The moon was only showing a sliver of itself. It looked like it had been dipped in chocolate. A hint of cloud that looked like a scoop of marshmallow fluff could be seen beside the sliver of moon. It was a night for sweet dreams. Some girls and boys knew what time of year it was by the change in the weather. Some knew by the amount of shopping their parents suddenly did. Others knew by the name of the month on the calendar…December! It was the time of year to be especially good. It was a night to catch a sweet dream. Sweet dreams love an especially dark night. They fly around out there by the dozens, bumping into each other, trying to find a lovely little sleeping child to share their magic. It is a very difficult and tedious task to make the perfect match. When morning comes, all sweet dreams must be gone. All are, hopefully, in the hearts and minds of children somewhere in this world. Babies in cribs, boys and girls in their beds, sleeping bags, tents and parent’s arms – all were sound asleep and hoping for a sweet dream. Now, it was getting close to morning and getting close to December 25. There was one dream still out there this night. It was floating around frantically trying to find some child who would cherish the magic of dreaming and would want what this sweet dream had to offer. It was December and children are very particular about their sweet dreams. But, that was the hard part… what this sweet dream had to offer. It wasn’t sweet like candy or fun like doing a puzzle or riding a bike. It was plain and simple and shared in a minute. As the sun came up and the moon melted into day, somewhere in this world a little child awoke from the night and remembered the sweet dream that was shared and whispered in their ear…you are loved! How sweet it is! MAPC | FROM PAGE 21 path availability. The report also examines access disparities by race and socio-economic status, and it offers a list of high-priority projects to link key routes regionally for greater equity. According to the report, Cambridge, Somerville and Boston are leading the region by bike lane mileage, with more than 15 percent of streets in Cambridge featuring some form of protected bike lane, and at least 10 percent of streets in Somerville and five percent of streets in Boston. The report is current through the end of 2020 and is using data pulled from trailmap. mapc.org, MAPC’s inventory of bike and pedestrian infrastructure in Greater Boston. The full report is available at mapc.org/ resource-library/trails-inventory. According to MAPC, the goal is to update the database MAPC | SEE PAGE 23
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