Invited Up a Skyscraper I’ve Loved for Decades… and Realizing Something

Though we who live in cities gaze upon our famed skylines nearly every day, it hit me with a jolt this month that, though I’ve gone to the top of famous structures, globally — including the tallest building in the world — I’ve never actually been inside most of my favorite buildings right here in Boston. All of that changed recently as two dreams intertwined in an unexpected, glorious moment.

Back up nearly FOURTEEN years ago to an article that I wrote in the second year of this site’s existence. The post sang the praises of the glass-enrobed skyscraper in downtown Boston known as “53 State Street,” or “Exchange Place.” Gaze at its glory, below…

In that decade-and-a-half-old post about this architectural wonder, I cooed about how modern steel and mirrors are artfully draped over the 1896 Stock Exchange building, marrying the historic with the new. I dubbed this building my favorite in the entire city of Boston. It didn’t occur to me that I might ever have the opportunity to actually walk inside…

Move forward in time to 2018, when I was just getting my Reiki business off the ground. My clients were friends and neighbors, and I was charging hardly anything per hour — not even enough to cover my studio rental. Never did I imagine I might be hired a few years later by a giant office building…

This brings us to this year: early 2024. Surprise, surprise — I just completed my first ever corporate wellness event: offering “Chair Reiki” in the very same unattainable skyscraper that captured my heart so many years ago!

How did this happen? Thanks to the power of internet searches, the building’s event coordinator had found positive reviews about my Boston Reiki business online, and had reached out to see if I would be available to be a part of a wellness event for the entire skyscraper. I gave an enthusiastic “YES!” What an experience to be able to provide gentle relaxing touch for the kindly office workers.

Not only were the clients and coordinators delightful, but just look at this glorious view, pictured above, from the Reiki chair. I was even able to keep time for our energy work sessions by looking fondly out the window at another one of the best buildings in Boston: the Custom House Tower!

It was profound on several levels to at last walk into the glittering building, and to ascend its rapid elevator towards the clouds. Not only was it wild to be inside the skyscraper I’ve loved for so long… but it also provided an intense contrast to my nearly two decades of working as a public school teacher (currently as a school librarian).

As you are likely already well aware, the disparities in resources and wealth in this city — as nearly any other — are massive. When I walked into this lobby pictured below, the juxtaposition was not lost on me, contrasting it to the facilities of the school in which I work during most days.

Something I find particularly fascinating is the treatment of “old” vs. “historic” in each case. Note that this skyscraper is built around the existing walls of a historic 1896 building: a beautiful choice that honors the past, while bringing it into the future — much as Pittsfield, MA architecture is doing.

Meanwhile, the school in which I now work as a librarian was built in the early 1900s (also over 100 years ago), and appears to have had a renovation in the early 1970s — 45 years ago. Seeing Exchange Place made me wonder: How might we continue to freshen up our historic architecture — in our schools, as well as our skyscrapers?

At the end of the three magical hours I spent at that corporate wellness event, I stepped out onto the roof deck of the skyscraper and looked out over my city, dear Boston, breathing a sigh of gratitude. Oh wow — I suddenly realized that I could see the public school where I had started my public teaching career two decades ago, at age 21!

Memories flooded back of all the years I spent at that school, trying my not-good-enough best to teach high schoolers who were barely younger than me. Tears welling up, I remembered something: During a moment of mayhem back in 2004, I had looked out the window of the school and caught a glimpse of a certain glittering skyscraper in the distance. Never did I realize, then, that it would be possible for me to ascend it, twenty-one years later… working to bring calm and relaxation.