Life Is A Journey, Take The Family On A Winter Maine Snowsled Trip.
Small town living, Maine is famous for down to earth real genuine people that care about each other.
Many out of state Maine real estate buyers repeat the same regret. The nice little town they used to live in is not any longer out of state. What happened? Simple. Too many people moved in.
Because Maine is a tad up the Interstate 95 in the right hand corner of the country, our location almost in Canada means insulation from over crowding. Small Maine towns are tighter, special, more home grown too. Because it is up to us to pitch in, volunteer to step up and do our part.
Making Music In Small Town Maine Community Band Video.
Fresh Veggies Home Grown, Locally Raised Farmer’s Market Video.
Mainers are more involved, aware of the people around them.
And the four season natural beauty we enjoy year round, not just sample one week a year in Vacationland means we are grateful. In our right place and know it.
I am some kind of happy that my kids were raised in a small town atmosphere where the entire village has a hand in raising them. We rely, can depend on each other. Everyone has a purpose, talent, skills and raises their hand to throw their weight in to local community events.
Community, civic club, school and church service are a given when you live in Maine.
A state not flush with cash to hire what needs doing to create the local flavor. But Maine individuals coming forward to whole heartedly do their part for the greater good. That is selfless which society is not so prone to be these days of “it’s all about me”.
Maine has lots of beautiful adjectives to describe her. But family, local home town proud is the real sparkle on the natural gem. If you live here, compare her to other places, I am preaching to the choir. If you are in an urban, city area high in crime and expense physically, mentally, financially to live there, have hope. Don’t stop dreaming.
Are you ready to take the step in relocation, moving to Maine or owning a piece for vacation recreational use? Can help you out in that regard. Maine, I am a personal fan like everyone who lives here. Get here quick as you can.
Maine Ski Trips, Easy Way To Stay In Touch, Enjoy Your Kids After They Grow Up And Out.
There is nothing like a quiver full of kids, children to enrich your life when you live in a rural state like Maine.
Activities outdoors, all four seasons are the norm for Maine family living. I had the priviledge to be blessed with four kids, two step children. All unique, special, individual just like you and me.
Group trips to Akron Ohio for soap box derby racing’s World Series of downhill excitement were special the two times we all went west. Ski trips here and there. Cruise vacations with a boat bobbing on blue green water were fun with a bunch of kids too.
But one at a time events with your kids.
Where the child does not have to share you or take turns. Having you, plus you them, all to yourself is needed too.
Today on the ride in to the real estate office from the lake I thought of oldest daughter Elizabeth. And just she and I jumping in a white Jeep when she was five. And heading to Beaver Cove Marina in Greenville to fetch a boat that was bought over the phone. Needing to be picked up.
I texted her this morning and asked her if she remembered the trip. She lets me know what is happening where she lives in NYC with back and forth text communications. A call once in a while.
Or the time just she and I went to her Mom’s brother’s wedding in The Forks.
Because her Mom was not able to travel, had to stay home and due to have enough child soon. The child being the center of all your attention is healthy, special.
Riding a Maine ski lift talking to just one or two of the kids due to seating. Or one child having to stay home due to last minute sickness. And shuttled to the farm for expert care from Nurse Nana. The trip not canceled, but one member missing the outing due to illness. With the show going on without them.
Had one of those ski trips to Rangley Lake to swish swish down Saddleback Mountain.
Where Elliot, the youngest had to bow out due to the flu that arrived just as we loaded him in to the jeep. Ready to leave the driveway when oh oh, here comes breakfast. Again.
Building one soap box derby car at a time in the basement with each kid. Teaching them about allen wrenches, steering turn buckle cables, washers, nuts and bolts. Then guiding each down the lanes, advising as Mr Goodwrench for support.
Or even spending time in the hospital waiting room while a bottle of vital Vitamin B mixture is IV pole dripped in to another step daughter. While watching a movie or delivering a pizza, something to eat.
Or walking between little league fields to juggle two baseball games with different kids not on the same teams.
Not on the same level of games due to age differences. Doing the best you can to attend individual games for hockey, baseball or basketball, soccer, tennis, track and field as well as group trips with all aboard. Helping find their first car within a budget. One on one. Trips for teeth brace tightening. To college campuses for tours on which one for the sheep skin.
When college happens, loading up the SUV to deliver the kids to dorms, out of state schools becomes the new activitiy. Video those college trips, take pictures of cross country trips with just you and one child. As a parent, the teaching never stops to prepare each and every kid for the wild blue yonder. College experiences are the threshold of their lives on their own, not with you day to day.
Trip To Colorado College With Youngest, Elliot Video
Looking back before empty nest syndrome, you wonder how you did it all. But savor the times when lots of kids in the home. And many of their friends in and out growing up in a small Maine town. Enjoy your kids, one at a time, collectively. Finish raising those kids. Put them first and foremost. Video those college graduations. Keep taking those Maine ski trips, other family vacations. Make the time.
Maine, the place to raise a family. Have kids with their heads screwed on straight and happy, productive, not with their hands out expecting something for nothing.
Living In Maine, Unspoiled Natural Wonders Surrounds Us Every Day.
If you lasso the guy or gal on the street outside of Vacationland, Maine.
And ask them what does the word “Maine” mean, the short list would include unspoiled, natural, not crowded or over built up. Oh sure lighthouses, lobsters, the sea coast tourist traps for trinkets would come to mind. Mt Katahdin, hot fresh blueberry pie and Maine potatoes would also be uttered in the man on the street survey interview too.
Being a good steward means respect for the land, water, natural resources in Maine.
Protecting it, cherishing your Maine surroundings. Living a simpler life and with energy conservation, frugality in mind. Not wasting anything. Not because you are miserly but because it is living in moderation. Not prone to excess. Less is more. Having all you need, not everything you want. Being grateful you have anything at all.
Henry David Thoreau appreciated life in Maine too. Was deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay. His valuable Maine writings also at the same time advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life’s true essential needs. Henry David Thoreau’s stand the test of time thought provoking literature using Maine as the creative backdrop for inspiration is available for you too. Get to Maine. Often.
Survival in life amidst hostile elements and carving out a worth while existence any way without natural decay or expense to our surroundings. Thoreau promoted abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life’s true essential needs.
Thoreau did a lot in his short 45 year old life that included insightful writing, reflections done in Maine.
To make people think about being good stewards. To not live in excess that clutters a person’s life. Robs them of precious time to enjoy the little things money can not buy. That are the real gems of existence on the revolving blue and green marble.
The animated film “Why I’m Moving To Maine” nails it rather simply too. Man does mess up this Earth with the hunger and waste for energy to fuel life made more complicated than God intended. Strive to keep it simple. Always.
Maine, only one place was made like her. Treat her like a lady. What are you waiting for? Sample ME. Get here quick as you can, as often as time allows.
Some See A Burdock, Weed. Others Take The Time To See The Hidden Flower.
Ever feel you are being held back, anxious but did not know why?
With a sense of urgency caused by the crack of a starter’s gun at a sporting event but your arms, legs don’t move? Good. You are learning to relax, sit out a few of life’s races. Or your kids just grew up and are out on their own.
Life is not a race.
Not a buffet with everything under the glass sneeze guard having to be sampled. Heaped tittering on the sliding cafeteria tray like John Belushi’s Bluto in Animal House. Everything in life does not have to be approached like it’s life and death important either when you learn to let go, ease back and just enjoy the ride.
Sometimes the rush and hurry is because of agendas others have for your life. Parents, spouses, bosses, churches, kids. Expectatations to do this, don’t do that. But why not salt and pepper a few of your own like Frank’s song about a little of it being “my way”. Especially after your kid’s that got your best growing up are up and out of the nest.
At a graveside funeral service yesterday, mourners, friends and family of the deceased came together to pay their respects.
To share and review the life of the departed. With outdoor stories about the personal experiences shared without a script. From the heart. How the one being honored touched the life of those standing around the grave site in the blustery cold wind. Being warmed inside by the spirit of that person.
Funerals are healthy, should not be avoided. Make a person think of their own life as they hear about the journey of the dead before they left Earth. As you listen to the honor guard’s last lone blast on the trumpet. Watch the two unfold, refold the stars and stripes. And on bended knee with the utmost respect, present that red, white and blue triangle to the greiving family. To begin the healing. To attempt to fill the big void, gap the loss of the loved one creates when they die. And loved ones begin to realize how much they depended on that individual but did not really know the extent until they are gone.
Ask any one with a bucket list or when they near the end about how they lived their life. Most share the joys of what was done right. But many will have regrets about spending so much time just trying to measure up. And meet the expectations of others around them. Coming up short in adding some color, seasoning to that life because of so much effort trying to please others. Happiness from outside yourself comes and goes. Joy developed inside you remains, radiates and sustains you through thick or thin.
Take some of those hour glass shifting sands for yourself to produce some inner joy.
It is not selfish if the bulk of your life is as a good and faithful servant to others. Your own personal enjoyment, enrichment, what you enjoy doing is also what defines your life. Adds greater deeper meaning.
When family, especially your own kids are a priority in your life, the obligation and privledge to raise them provides lots of opportunities for fun. Because kids are masters at it. Especially in the younger years when their life is kept simple. Kids get you involved in their sports, schools, church activities. Cause bleacher seat introductions to other family oriented parents. Stimulate you to not miss church or to slack off in areas you are spurred on to work harder because of them. And the importance to make sure they are prepared for the wild blue yonder with practicing what you preach.
When you take vacation trips with your kids, those family outings are seen through their eyes. Not just your own peepers. Kids in a good way cause the focus to be on the importance to get them raised right. Not just taking care of your own needs. Being responsible, considerate of others and giving something back all part of shaping a child. To give them a worthwhile purpose, skills and a healthy outlook to enjoy and impart with their kids some day. As the circle continues.
When you spend time alone, read a lot after the kids are out on their own, time to pull back, think about life happens easily.
You are freed up of the running a household with a neon glowing “no vacancy” sign out front and all that good parenting demands. A home becomes just a house again. And you have some frank discussions with the guy in the mirror you brush teeth, run a comb through your hair with each morning. About now what.
Like the funeral experience which is like studying the life of others reading biographies to shape your own, clarity happens. Like the Johnny Nash or Jimmy Cliff remake song point out about hope, faith, promise. Options, choices are revealed for decisions you used to make out of consideration sharing with a mate or family considerations. But now on your own with the take away that it is your life to lead.
If many people feel they lived their life jammed packed with meeting the expectations of others but not many of their own, there is a corner to turn up ahead.
A sudden spacious empty nest can mean its time to have lattitude to charter your own brightly colored kayak. Grab a paddle. Find someone in time to paddle with beside you. But for now just enjoy catching your breath. Cranking your head around to survey the surroundings. To consider the options that become crystal in the quiet, new sensation of being alone. Listening for daily directional cues in Maine. Get on your knees and work more in your private personal spiritual garden.
Slow Down, You Can Not Help But Relax In Maine.
Maine, a special place where you can still hear yourself think.
Unless you are hard of hearing and thought yesterday’s Me In Maine blog post was about Las Vegas. It was not, but about Gulf Hagas, the “Grand Canyon of Maine”. The four seasons solitude so easy to tap in to in Maine is the best place for the many life reviews along the way. To see what needs tweaking, loosening, tightening.
Make Maine your first priority for the unspoiled, uncrowded, safe surroundings. To not lead your entire life out of just a sense of duty. But one out of love for what is inside you ready to blossom. To grow stronger in faith that feeds your passion, hunger, thirst and helps you discover what has been missing. You and I have lots of value, talent, worth that we need to re-discover. That sometimes others miss altogther because of your unwillingness to open up and trust. Or just they did not take the time because they were too busy too. Make, take the time to open up. It’s okay to be needy, we all are.
Too often others can remind you of where you come up short. And you start to believe them when they say there is nothing about you that they like. It is up to you to see where you do get it right for self confidence, self esteem. Risk living your own life with confidence. Love every one, see every thing in it with hope, faith and understanding anyway. It is not conditional, it should be an agape type of love without strings or demands in return.
You are lucky enough to have a week’s vacation or live in Maine and are itching to get out and explore.
Discover the “Grand Canyon of Maine”, Gulf Hagas as one possible hike with the family. In places the Pleasant River west branch drops up to 375′ deep to create plenty of pretty impressive waterfalls in the rock out cropping. Along the sides of the twisting 3 mile gorge straight up slate walls of stone containing this natural wonder of Maine. Spring runoff especially causes a memorable family day trip hike. One ideal healthy exercise and back drop for an outdoor picnic lunch.
The gorge and land surrounding Gulf Hagas is owned by the National Park Service.
Bring your camera to capture frames of a registered National Monument owned by the Nature Conservancy called the Hermitage. A special area of white king pine stands that are high, wide and not your typical forest to add to the wonderment of the Gulf Hagas experience. Hurt your neck looking skyward with eastern white pine trees up to 150 feet tall and up to 10 feet in girth, wide.
The Hermitage (a majestic stand of towering white king pine) was declared a registered National Landmark in 1968. This land is now owned by the Nature Conservancy. Like the trail that follows the canyon rim offering hikers views of the falls and its geology, the Hermitage is free, open to the public. Fall foliage trips add special colorful sparkle to the hike with your family too.
Gulf Hagas is located in the last 100 miles of more difficult sections of the Appalachian Trail Corridor.
Many people walk portions of the 2200 mile hiking trail extending from Georgia, to Maine. And in time can claim to have completed the AT, a feat of beauty, perseverance and a testament to one’s physical fitness.
The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad evolved from an earlier rail service to Katahdin Iron Works, a State Park and historic site where iron ore was once smelted. And this nearby site helps add to the Gulf Hagas adventure. Landowners around Gulf Hagas have agreed to be good stewards to protect the natural Gulf Hagas resource in the 500 acres of land wrapping around the many waterfalls and pools.
You can’t build fires and no camping is allowed in Gulf Hagas.
Bring a couple pairs of sneakers because rocks are slippery and you are going to get wet crossing brooks and need foot protection. Plus you have to figure how much time and stamina your family’s age can handle has for an enjoyable hike too. Start early because the up to 8 hour walk can cover 8 miles in total. But a shorter version, easy hike of Gulf Hagas Brook and the famous Hermitage giant pines stand is a 4 mile round trip.
Kayaking Gulf Hagas is not for the faint of heart either. Can you say expert level, class five rapids when the water level is high? The steep gorge walls can make egress nearly impossible in what may have deemed Maine’s best creek run. Strap on the helmet, tar your hands to hang on to your paddle, say your prayers and check your term life insurance. Jaws, Buttermilk Falls and Billings Falls are a few of the more legendary, notable waterways to visit on your hike around the canyon rim trail of Gulf Hagas.
Where is Gulf Hagas, the now defunct Katahdin Iron Works site?
Maine, lots to see if you can just make time to cross that big green bridge entering Kittery on the bottom of the state.
Vacationland is stamped as a friendly reminder on every Maine license plate and it’s only your own fault if you don’t make time to sample all the Pine Tree State has to offer for low cost, high value family outings. Maine, get here quick like a bunny. Come for a day, stay a life time.
Your Past Gets Colored, Filtered And Look For The Good, See The Entire Event, Situation, Relationship.
How you see your past, the experiences with events, situations, people in it reveals a lot of about the real you.
The way you were raised, the filtering process that happens from your inner most workings deep down inside. What you learned growing up or habits you picked up along the way.
Like the rear view mirror warning, disclaimer “Warning: Objects In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear.” Means be careful. Distortion, good and bad coloring happens that obscurs the truth or reality of the past life film frames. The ones already played out on the silver screen where they splash on the back of the inside of your head.
My youngest son Elliot texted me yesterday morning that he had had a dream about Nana the night before.
Followed by a two thumb tapped out telegraph that “I miss her”. We all do son and maybe because she was such a big part of our daily lives. She lived local and was such a loving, warm, make you feel good cheerful person.
I texted back “Today is Thursday. Tonight is Pizza Hut night.” We hit the hut, it was not a rut. And Nana would always order spaghetti with those spicy meatballs. While the table full of kids would chat it up. Debate how many and what kind of pizza pies would fit the hole in the end of the gullet.
Habits done like clockwork.
Ray Crone and his wife now deceased recently would always “hit the hut” the same night. Christine Nickerson and her long table of family too. It was a ritual, tradition and seemingly no big deal to anyone outside the routine. But part of sharing, caring and learning from grandparents. With three generations feasting, enjoying the time together and sustenance.
But kids grow up as they should. Elliot being picked up May 16th at the Portland Maine Jetport, home from his completed junior year at Colorado College. The next day packed up in black hand me down Honda Del Sol of his brother’s we just put some money in to thanks to Mitch Holmes. Master with a power wrench and screw driver.
And Bob Aucoin gifted with corrosion removal, the spray bomb and tail light housing replacement. Elliot pilots the black two door gas miser to The Forks. For his summer job leading a boat on white water rafting for Northern Outdoors expeditions on the Dead River. Hang on Elliot, folks grab the short rope and whisper some rafting safety prayers.
His brother Alex just got done working at A Basin ski area in Colorado. And begins his summer job before strapping on the boards again next winter for another Colorado winter ski season. Alex too has a summer job rafting the Colorado River a few states away from his little brother. Empty nest syndrome recovery has begun for Dad as a new life stage is entered.
The past starts and stops as folks get older.
The one constant I am jealous of is the sixty year life event polished marriages like my parents had. Til death do us part raising the four kids they had together, not a blend of two families which is a delicate procedure.
When two brand new people have the double whammy of working out the knot tying after saying “I do”. And keeping the troops happy who may or may not have seen the need for the matrimony. And struggle with the divorce that led up to it that they were not so wild about either.
It is easy to take for granted that sixty year marriage is just because both were ideally suited.
Neither partner was or ever is perfect. But start out or with time, lots of work and patience become perfect for each other. And each finally end up thinking the other is the best thing to happen in their life.
Those marriages of sixty years are like the rear view mirror warning. They don’t start out the way they appear now. Talk to someone that has logged that many miles. I do. And over and over here the secret is three little words. You are thinking “I love you”? All older folks will say yes, love is definitely a component.
But liking the person, seeing his or her strengths, not a long list of things you don’t like about them.
And wishing they would change to make them easier for you, me to take. That we don’t react so lovingly to when frustration sets in.
The three little words as one secret axiom to keep in mind always for marriage unity, onesness? When feathers get ruffled, as storms brew inside a household, surrender. “Dear probably right.”
I texted Elliot back later yesterday to let him know Nana’s farm flowers are popping, poking through the ground and doing nicely. Planted with love, kindness on her knees where she spent everyday to begin it with gratitude. She worked hard praying, studying, asking God for guidance every morning. I get up before five am every day to walk, study, pray and do the same sharing with my creator. Because I can not do it alone. There is much room for improvement as the previous blog posts spell out, making me an open book as I get it. But I am told in emails, there are a few others out there with room for improvement too.
Mom, Nana, Mary Lou to many lives on in our hearts and I meet people almost daily who also miss her here on Earth. Still alive in the beauty of God’s flowers. Her Christmas cactus that still blooms at my brother Stephen and Jenny’s home in Bangor Maine on Thatcher Street. Or when I see flocks, African violets she reminded me need to be lovingly dusted, watered, fed, talked to to survive.
I have no doubt whatsoever Nana is in a better place called Heaven. Because of her life dedication to God and with his help to be the way she treated people, looked at life and raised us all. And due to her accepting without batting an eye and smiling for all in the room when it was announced stage four cancer. Need to start chemo today. And she said I am trusting in the Lord if it is my time to go. To be with my Dad who had died a few years earlier.
Look for the good in others, yourself. Always.
And in past relationships, instead of seeing the bad, instead one by one see the good never fade moments that were enjoyed. Not cauterizing lingering feelings of love that you might try to smother with a soldering iron of bitterness or regret. Because you can never, should not try to “unlove” someone to make room for another. Because you can not.
Maine, outdoor places to be alone, to see and process events, relationships, other people in your life with 20 – 20 vision. Push in the clutch, just coast and let go, learn much in pauses you build in to your life in Maine, the way life should be.
