My Maine escape

I believe in all cases that getting lost can be good for the soul, whether it is humility, spontaneity, wonder or peace, taking to the road and letting go of authorship is always a good thing in this world of stress, over connectivity and constant demands. And when things feel like they are at their worst, I think it all the more reason to get in the car and lost.

Over the past four years I have stopped imagining that things have broken completely and could not be more broken. I have found a measured way of viewing new emotional, financial, and familial stressors as each new challenge surpasses the previous. I’m not loving it nor proud of the growth, I would happily trade out, but it is. What would have shattered me 5 years ago is often just another week of self-employment, or life with a mother who has a degenerative memory illness.

But every now and then self care requires a true escape, and for me of late my Maine Escape has been everything. Going into the woods where there is no service nothing to do but listen to the leaves and snow flakes drift to the ground in the absolute silence where nights are so dark that the stars pierce the sky. And farms welcome me to spend time with their creatures, more therapeutic than 100 massages.

I have been exploring western Maines roads and villages, which in spite of 4 years of college and many winters of skiing and summers on the coast I know very little. So discoveries lie around each bend in the road. Local travel can be just as illuminating, I spend mornings in diners chatting with the community and rainy afternoons in libraries learning village history back to the civil war. I am always grateful by how welcoming Americans truly are if you show up with an open mind.

It might do us all good to get back out there and get lost a bit more, to find each other, and give way knowing all the answers, talking so much, to spend some time looking and listening. I know for me, taking a break from trying to find answers, to understand and think through things, and to just be, on the roads, in the woods and with animals is everything.