Maine, Easy State To Surrender, Let Go, Get Peaceful.
When you are surrounded in Maine beauty, natural four season unspoiled scenery, it is easier to get in touch with your inner thoughts.
To sort, figure things out without the hustle bustle of busier, chaotic areas that are noisy, pushy, not peaceful.
Surrender is a word not too popular in this society.
It often is thought of negatively like someone is the loser, lost the race, did not get the trophy or prize. Weakness is associated with surrender. But without surrender to yourself that can be your biggest obstacle in learning, growing, moving on. You can stay chasing your tail. Spinning your wheels. Going in circles.
Surrender is the heart of worshiping God.
One step before peace which leads to other joys, contentment, richer simple living. Surrender is needed because you die to self. You replace what you want with what he expects. In marriages surrender means you stopping worrying about being happy and focus on the steps needed daily to be holy. You rely on God to work things out. You let go and let God do his perfect work. You work on changing you not your partner. And they do likewise.
Instead of trying harder, when you surrender, back off and let go, you trust more. When you surrender you don’t react to criticism and have to defend yourself, your ego, you core values. Surrendering your heart in a relationship removes the confusion, frustration, keeps anger from building up. Because it is not about you but God, the other person. You can pull back and see the relationship, the building blocks of what God whats. Not what you think you need.
Surrender also means when you may want a relationship to grow, deepen, not end but that God may has different designs.
When you let go of someone that may never come back in a relationship that you are willing to work hard to show through and through you love them, a light bulb comes on. You realize surrender is the only option.
The worry, doubt stops and you can start living. Because you are grateful for all God has done up to this point in your life. The focus becomes adjustment, lots of changes in your lifestyle, in your thoughts about relationships. The goal to make you healthy, peaceful, full of joy. You can relax because it is not about the other person telling you what you need to do. God is in charge now.
To feel peace and trust in something besides yourself. Much bigger than you. There is no way you can grow hanging on to something that is not available today. Or may never be. I am learning about letting go, surrendering. have to, want to, need to for the only healthy approach to living, loving. Trust that the Lord is leading that area, every aspect of your life.
Trust and obey, surrender and letting go is peace, happiness. Because the worries are gone, the wondering, anxious feeling of what will unfold is not end of the world all important. You live in today and hope, dream for good things that God has always provided. If you work daily to get your heart, your thoughts around what God expects of us, inner peace is maintained. You and I are a lot more fun to be around too adopting that kind of approach to life, day to day living.
Maine is a state where you don’t have to wonder if there is a God.
Because it is obvious with the surrounding beauty that makes it easy to accept. Man could not have created a state like Maine and the original natural purity remains because we are off the beaten path. When you are camped on a lake, working on a farm, climbing a tall hill or mountain. And watching the season’s change, the day’s sunrise and sunsets, storms unfold, you know not to get bogged down in first world problems.
Get to Maine, start your surrender. Start living a full, rich, happier, healthier life.
You wake at 4:30 AM, need to get to the barn to start your day haying, graining, watering, cleaning out the cattle, small animal pens.
One Potato Two Potato Three Potato…Four. Then sit down to a big breakfast before finishing fixing the power take off on the farm tractor you need to run the post hole digger. The one needed to create the extra ten acre pasture that needs fencing so you can rotate the feed plots. To give the primary pasture a break to recharge, grow as your herd increases.
You, your wife, kids are partners with true division of the Maine farm labor.
She and your youngest child collect eggs for resale at the Maine farmer’s market in town. You and the oldest child spend a lot of time together working, talking on the farm chores when he is not in school.
Maine Farmers Market Video
Next winter’s wood is being processed now so it will be dry, stacked, and not green. Or loaded with creosote which could cause chimney fires in the kitchen cook stove or in the cellar furnace. The day to day on a Maine farm is varied, interesting, never the same ole same ole. You are in the best physical shape in your life. You can see what you did today and enjoy the empowerment, hands on activities.
You get to see your family a lot through out the day on a Maine farm.
It is not a case of Mom and Dad race out the door early and come home late. Not a case of latch key kids alone most of the childhood. Or wisked off to day care by individuals outside the home.
You help the Maine farmer next door and can expect the same in return.
The weather is not always your friend but you make it work around the reports you have to make the best of things. You are grateful for all your have. Don’t lament what you do not. You’ve become a better carpenter, mechanic.
You have extreme patience, are good at shopping for the best deal. Money is precious, hard earned and never wasted. You are willing to learn how to fix things yourself. Go on line and read books and are not afraid to ask others for guidance to run the Maine farm. Thinking we just described the life you want to lead full time, part time, on a Maine hobby farm? Check the selection, ask some questions. Call, click, come visit us!
I remember watching outdoor movies growing up, say a World War Two or western film production at the local Borderland Drive In Theatre with the entire family crowded in the car.
Looking Inside, Behind The Glowing Red Nose For Qualities To Love. See me?
I’m the youngest of four boys in my one piece pajamas, the one with the zipper down the back and built in slippers.
Dad would head off to hunt for snacks at the yellow lighted concession stand down by the swing sets.
And usually get talking, socializing. Taking a very long time to return to the car with what he had hunted, gathered, foraged for us at the snack shack.
Never making it through much of the first flick. I would be asleep long before the last reel of the double feature movie on the big screen finished and the drive in flood lights came on. And we were all reminded to replace, hang our audio speakers on the post next to the car before we drove off in single file. With Ralph expertly making lighthouse like revolving hand gestures with his four cell flashlight. To herd the traffic out to the main road to head home for the night.
I remember the expression Dad would use when the action, drama on the big silver screen was a little unrealistic. Especially during the war scenes where he did have experiences as a tail gunner in a B 24 bomber during the early forties. If something hit him as over the top, unrealistic, not the way it really happened. And he would grown “that is so Hollywood”.
Passed of as real, as big as life and twice as frightening by some director, film producer that had not ever seen action. And swallowed hook, line and sinker by the popcorn munching, soda slurping crowd watching the film in rows and rows from the comfort of their own cars.
This morning I started my day reading one of my favorite writers C.S. Lewis.
From Mere Christianity and his topic about falling in love. Lewis writes “Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You can not make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling.”
“Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called “being in love” usually does not last.”
Lewis reminds “But as I’ve said before, the most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs.” This country, world desperately seeks to be in love. All the time.
The expectations of two people in a relationship, the world in general can become unrealistic because of that hunger, that thirst.
To maintain story book love and romance can become a grueling emotional marathon. Causing bone weary fatigue of round the clock effort that can not be maintained. Because love has to evolve, deepen, move on to what else do you like about the other person. Besides the initial warm, fuzzy, glowing feeling of love. It boils down to move over, give me the clipboard run down of what do you like about the other person in the partnership?
They say there is no such thing as just one perfect soul mate. There are lots of possibilities for the role. That if you can find someone that possesses 70 to 75% the make up of what you expect, looking for in qualities, you can make a lasting, rich relationship happen. But if you rely on the initial sweep you off your feet, head over heels roller coaster rush of over the top love to continue non stop, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.
Get hooked on more than a feeling of love.
See the other person as more than how they make you feel up front. Realize what they possess deep inside that is good, real, not Hollywood but practical for day to day living. That will last, serve as a foundation to build on and survive the storms of life and the relationship. Know yourself and that this other person may not be right for everyone, but they are for you.
Otherwise you will keep looking, expecting that first in love explosive feeling.That comes after long droughts of longing for it, being in an emotional desert needing rain. And can see a mirage, believe all your pain, suffering in life will evaporate, be not more. Like it never happened. With the elixir of true love.
Thinking that clutching, clinging for dear life to that feeling of being deep in love will fix all that has been wrong in your life up until that moment. That is so Hollywood unrealistic and your partner is going to get exhausted trying to meet your expectations. Making you happy is a full time job. Your own inside life long exercise to find inner peace, the basis of everything else you build on that foundation.
Find someone you like, and that both of you feel you got the better half of the exchange, the partnership. Where the greater good of the combination results than you could hope to achieve on your own. The harmony, peace, contentment and joy that results in that union will create the lasting love that is not just the flash in the pan fireworks kind that is artificial, not real.
Clean living, a simple honest approach to life is what Maine is all about.
Spring Time Hope Of New Births, New Fresh Beginnings, Chances To Plant Maine Crops Again. Not flashy, not presumptuous or pedantic but down to earth, family and God based. The clutter of material items to impress is not the way a true Mainer rolls. Going head over heels in debt and spending way way beyond what a person can even begin to think of repaying in their lifetime is not the Maine tradition.
Frugal, not cheap. Generous to worthwhile local causes, supporting the local church parish and creating low or no cost recreational amusement the norm. We are lucky to live in the state the license plates proclaim is “Vacationland”. Our fun is in our own backyard. Only a gallon or two of gas and a picnic basket of home made food delicacies away. Any time no one is looking. And we can sneak away to enjoy the wide open, natural outdoors Maine is famous for around the world.
With the Maine four season beauty everywhere you turn it is not hard to be continually reminded what we believe in.
The feeling that fills your heart, mind and soul as you peer, gaze out over the unspoiled landscape, the waterfront in Maine makes you feel close to God, our creator. We are reminded daily, continually of what we believe in. It surrounds us, is unavoidable.
Mainers have their heads screwed on straight, are hard working, their feet planted firmly on the ground under them. We try to keep a child’s heart with a grown up’s head. We occasionally stumble but persevere to do our best to lead a Christian life. We realize others are doing the best they can and cut them some slack, because we have been in positions when grace was extended to us.
We practice the art of forgiveness because we need to grant it, have it extended in return as we spend a lifetime seeking to improve ourselves.
Struggling with the generational burdens we inherit and the baggage we develop, take full credit for on our very own. And knowing our neighbor down the road does not judge us but is Johnny on the spot if we need help. That we could get the sharp elbow in the ribs to get over there to let him know you care. That you are there round the clock to give assistance in any shape or form if needed.
In small Maine towns, and most of them are, there is a connection. A strong sense of all the local members of a community having a unique role to fulfill. There are only so many of us so if we don’t band together, we die on the vine. Everything is home grown, volunteer not store bought.
The option of hiring it done, bidding it out for a commercial operation to do the heavy lifting of local events is not going to happen. Not in the cards, not in the budget. And what would be the fun in missing the involvement of your friends, family, neighbors to make the event special, memorable. A tradition to carry on year after year.
I think Mainers are more involved in their families, communities, schools, churches and civic groups.
We have a keener sense of what life is all about, where the priorities should be. We build in to our waking hours time to get our hearts and minds ready for the day. And through out that day count our blessings, work at finding joy, areas of our life to be grateful and appreciative. An always seeking an inner peace. The secret to a happier life.
We try not to take the credit for successes. Are not all that wild about compliments, or being made a big deal, fussed over. Just doing out part to contribute to the greater good without the need to be in the spotlight or get credit for our role in making the local area a better place to live, work and play.
If this is the approach to living you could warm up to, seriously consider making the move, relocation, retirement to Maine. I know a good Maine real estate broker who can help with the ins, outs, details. (Smile) Maine, get here quick as you can.
Junk in the trunk, no not the kind of garbage or debris you want to get out of your own backyard, but the kind you collect through life.
The Tool To Use To Seek Peace… An Inside Job We All Need To Work At. Carry around inside. Inherited from parents, their parents and lots you develop on your own reacting to others in self defense mode.
And unfortunately it takes years for you to discover your array of inner junk if you ever do at all.
All of us could stand the need for regular delousing, a strong shot of self improvement training to find real inner peace.
To calm, still the waters in our head and heart. Because as Billy Joel croons “we’re only human, we’re “SA-posted” to make mistakes. And we do, and will for life. Welcome to the club.
A common theme I hear as a Maine real estate broker is “I want to be on a dead end road without a neighbor in sight to bother me, or for me to not be in their face either”.
Avoiding other people makes Northern Maine with eleven and Southern Maine with only forty four people per square mile attractive. Less people, less problems the solution to the calamity. From living in arm to arm, trench warfare style survival in an over crowded area. Often why out of state folks yank up tent stakes, hoist the sail, and point the buck board north to Maine.
For centuries, the news has carried report on uprisings, struggles, wars, fighting. Peace is a temporary condition in many parts of the world. The Swiss seemingly have single handedly earned the reputation of getting along, negotiating peace settlements. Maybe its because they all carry that clever little knife? Or perhaps they work at developing an attitude of peace.
An inner peace and connection to God first then others around you see a change, realize the contentment.
And want what you have too. And that peaceful easy feeling spreads, becomes contagious. Goes viral. For all to benefit from as a marriage, household, community, country, world. Seems you can trust the Swiss for your off shore, out of the country bank accounts too. But that’s another blog post topic to ponder. Peace and trust are tag team partners. You need both to let go and stop fighting whatever brews, churns and aggravates inside your soul.
Peace.
Not just the kind that is a temporary cease fire stop to hostility. But when the rage, anger, feeling wronged, defensive emotions dry up, blow away. Replacing your fears, anxieties that make you sound the alarm. Begin the charge to rally the troops and fight for a cause. Many folks fight lots of causes.
But until you stop, drop and roll open the big garage bay door to your heart to expose bright healing light on the junk in the trunk, the sharp as glass, barbed edges inside keep up their destructive patterns. That make you feel like you are up continuously, battle fatigued. Sensing that you are in real danger. That everything is a matter of life and death importance to crank you up. Keeps causing those air raid sirens, battle station warnings to sound. To propel you in to action in a bad way. A needless, exhaustive, unproductive, unrewarding way that takes you away from a place called peace.
To find inner peace you need to be on your knees daily.
Searching, reading the world’s most popular, best selling of all books to find the answers to the puzzle of elusive peace. Yes what the world needs now, is love sweet love as the Bacharach song reminds. But it starts with peace so love can take root, expand, flood in to your heart. There are no shortages of Bible scripture on the importance of peace to calm the storms in your head and heart. To spring clean and remove worry, fears.
Romans 8:6
So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
Philippians 4:6-7
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Psalm 29:11
The Lord gives his people strength.
The Lord blesses them with peace.
These are just a few peaceful reminders for strength, to calm your heart and settle down the thought pattern that could be making your mind race. That keeps you from getting a good deep sound night’s sleep. Daily work on the inside “junk in your trunk” is essential if you want to get more out of life. And for your kids to see, your mate and friends to enjoy with a new and improved you.
Changes slowly happen from within, with discovery, understanding and discipline to lead your life in a healthier way physically, mentally, spiritually. Maine is a state well known for it’s peaceful, unspoiled by man settings. Get here quick as you can. She is a state that offers the serene natural, patient backdrop to clean out the junk in your trunk.
If you’re happy and you know it, sometimes clapping your hands, stomping your feet, smiling in joy and excitement is not so well received.
Leaving The Yard, The Freedom Of Your First Bike. I wake up mornings excited about getting out of bed, starting the day. My parents taught me how precious a new day is. Not to be wasted, to be approached as an adventure, an education, a gift from God our creator. A good night’s sleep helps make everything look rosier too. Being physically, spiritually, mentally fit requires daily health maintenance to savor life with those around us.
But sometimes your happiness, that is an inside job, not obtained from outside sources for lasting contentment can get a kink in the hose.
Other people who are not such happy campers don’t share the just glad to be alive, make the most of what you have attitude of enthusiasm. I have been whistling or humming a song as I trot in to the local post office and had more than one person grumble “what are you so happy about”. I don’t apologize but smile, take time to find out why they are so blue, to cheer them up. If I can.
But not everyone wants or knows how to be happy.
True joy is the result of a grateful heart. You can not achieve rich, lasting personal happiness without gratitude for how fortunate you really are. Don’t let unhappy, ungrateful people steal your joy. No matter how rough life has beaten you up in the past, your outlook, how you approach events that happen is key. Count your blessings through out the day. Literally list them out loud or in your head as constant reminders to reinforce, fortify your thinking as reminders of all that is so good in your life.
Flexibility in your thinking, the ability to quickly shift gears to learn from life’s setbacks keeps you from being sucked in to a pit of despair. A positive approach to learn from personal mistakes rather than always quick to point out who is responsible for the frown on your face is a powerful tool.
We are and always will be beginners in life.
Don’t feel ashamed or let anyone beat down your inner joy because they are unhappy and figure somehow you are always the one responsible. Or that they feel you don’t have the right to be happy because they are not. Remember hurt people hurt people. Take time to learn the source of their pain, suffering. Pray for them. Learn from them. But don’t discard them. And don’t let them abuse you with a harsh, critical spirit.
I was brought up on a Maine farm, did not have time to ever stop and feel sorry, lament for myself because my life had a clear, simple purpose. Pitch in with the other family members working the soil. Being outdoors in the spring creating a fresh smooth, rock free field to plant a new crop was a rebirth, renewal experience.
The chance to wipe the slate clean, to begin again. I knew my place in a family in the rhythm of Maine farming. I was depended on for my piece, contribution to the good of the family. And enjoyed each Maine farming season…the one to plant, the one to cultivate and hoe, the one to harvest. We had a few cows, small animals too and the balance of chores each day to feed, water and care for them created a rich sense of purpose. An internal metronome that guided our childhood. There were chores to do, there was nothing to be depressed about.
You don’t need a mood elevator drug regiment for fulfillment, to throw back a few shots of daily booze to forget your problems.
Or create a distracting medicated buzz. The wonderment of true lasting joy and excitement for life comes from a willingness to not always be right, to not control others. To accept differing opinions so you become less narrow, have the ability to soften hard and fast stances if you live a just black and white existence. Celebrate other viewpoints besides your own.
I’ll be happy when, I will know true joy if situations don’t work either. You postpone the inner state of joy, peace, contentment until something arrives. That may not. But the pursuit of a goal and living in the moment can be the genuine source of happiness. Stay in the day, the present and chose to be happy. Other people don’t make you happy, you do. It would be an incredible full time exhaustive job if whoever you marry, date, spend time with demanded “make me happy”.
Little things in life are the source of our joy.
The beauty of a new Maine day offers lots of sparkle to create happiness. I was a single full time Dad and rocking, holding a child sleeping in my arms is one powerful memory. Providing for the family is an awesome responsibility, privilege. Experiencing new things through a child’s eyes, being by their side guiding them, preparing them for life teaches you plenty too. A child takes your mind off yourself, makes you a better person because you can not preach one thing, and then do another. They are watching, keep your honest.
Add to this list of little things in your life that give you comfort, joy, create an overflowing well of inner happiness. So when someone rubs you the wrong way, bumps in to you it’s okay. You smile and take is all in stride. Because your inner contentment is strong, your faith in God makes you secure in yourself with out worries, fears, regrets, any shame or guilt.
My what makes me happy list living in a small Maine town includes my kids liking what I cooked, asking for more vegetables.
The smell of the ocean, staring in to a crackling fireplace or outdoor blaze with friends. New clean sheets, a small child walking next to you reaching up to take your hand, a handwritten letter from a relative or friend, private romantic notes left in hidden place only you would find.
Hot black coffee on the deck overlooking a Maine lake as the sunrises and you prepare your heart and head for a new day. Tea time with a parent in the middle of an afternoon in rocking chairs in a Maine farm house kitchen. Any new small animal. Knowing a good book is waiting for you. Having your income taxes done. The groceries are put away.
Finding a really nice well knit sweater at Mardens for five dollars. A whiff of feminine perfume and looking around to spy the source. Laughing babies and everyone in the room talking in higher pitched voices, family reunions with all ages sampling the home made food and knowing you are part of something bigger, special. Music that enhances the mood. The right kiss for the occasion.
Being hugged, made to feel special, told don’t change a thing.
A mate thinking they got the better end of the bargain and you feeling the same way in return. Talking, learning wisdom from an older person at a Maine bean supper in a grange or church. The smell of leaves burning. Reading to a small child, then they read to you. Prayers at night, lights out. Standing in the bedroom doorway watching them sleep.
Kayaking a Maine lake at sunset. Being in a setting you can not get to by car, high on a Maine mountain any season. A smile you caused. Fresh squeezed apple cider or home made ice cream you made, get to sample. Cooking a meal slowly, no clock pushing you with family, mate or friends in a kitchen filled with smells, music, low lighting. Being told “I love you”.
On your knees in a flower garden, hummingbirds and bees doing their thing. Hot out of the oven strawberry rhubbard pie with artic cold ice cream being scooped on to end a meal. Walking barefoot, the feel of soft grass on your feet. Popsicles and Kool aid, juicy watermelon, sizzling steaks. Sunsets, lighthouses, lightning, thunder or snow storms. A small child on a summer night staring in to a jar of fire flies they caught. Or twirling a sparkler that lights up their jubliant face in the shadows as crickets, frogs, lake loons provide background music.
The surroundings, setting is everything. Get to Maine quick as you can for a happier life. The loved ones around you will benefit too with the move, investment in Vacationland.
