What happened to you today that let you know Maine is "Home" (Warren: homes, living)

[quelly]

You all are very refreshing. I like to think positively, and your ideas are positive. My sadness is actually quite rare for me

Cheers to our future

Corgis - we may be in similar areas. I am in Western Maryland, a rural and economically depressed area of Marylan. And quite close to WV. We will be venturing to Thomas WV next weekend for some bluegrass music and a night away from here.

My Maine longing is weird. What we really liked about Maine was that all the good of everywhere else we had been was balled up into one place. We like it here since it is rural and still beautiful, though development is lurking. We like to visit MI, for I am from there and the soil in ME is like that in MI. We visit Shenandoah Nat'l Park each year and some of the plantlife and views are similar throughout ME. We have been to HI where people are friendly and there is just the most wonderful air! Like Maine. I could go on. My DH and I both experienced this strange feeling that Maine was everything/everywhere (that we had been). What is weird is we never WANTED to move to any of these other places.

This part, the longing is part of the adventure that I need to start breathing in. At the same time, we may make some lovely friends here together!!

Thanks for listening ladies and gents!

[treeluvr]

Corgis, Elcarim--I'm doing much the same thing. Purchasing extra thick socks and snow boots, heavy cabled sweaters, and flannel lined jeans. I don't really need these things here, but I don't want to have to buy everything when I get to Maine (and I will get to Maine!)

Also (like Starwalker) I'm saving as much as I can for the transition. I need to be in a place where people are neighborly, but let you be yourself. I want to be part of a community and contribute what I can. As far as I can tell, Maine offers that opportunity.

I know it's a risk. Any move to a new place carries a certain amount of risk. But, I know for sure that I love wild life, forests, and the ocean and interesting weather (the wilder, the better). And yes, I know it can be a pain to deal with. But I need to get away from the city and the thought of some happy years in Maine pleases me greatly.

I know I will never be wealthy, I don't much care and I don't much want to be around people who are. Know too many of upper "middle-class?" folks and do not see them as special. Like Forest, I'm looking for an affordable place.

[Elcarim]

Originally Posted by treeluvr

I know I will never be wealthy, I don't much care and I don't much want to be around people who are. Know too many of upper "middle-class?" folks and do not see them as special. Like Forest, I'm looking for an affordable place.

"Wealth" is such a relative term. I believe all the wealth one should ever need is waiting for us in Maine!

[corgis]

quelly - I'm down south in Charleston, WV but we travel through Western MD twice a year on our way up and back to Maine. We go through Cumberland on I-68 and hit I-81 at Hagarstown, then straight up through Penna.

Our situation is a bit different from some of you. We already have our house in Eastport and have had it for more than 4 years. Next Spring we will be taking another truck up there with our 'better furniture' (we are currently using my mother's furniture that had been in storage since she died many years ago and it was 30 years old then)

Like most of you, I daydream a lot about being there and I've even got lists for things to put in the car, like a roll of paper towels, a cooler that fits just right, a baggie with toll money, etc.

I put together what I call my Eastport bag and it's a tote bag hanging from a doorknob right now. It contains a map of Washington County, insurance policies and legal documents on the house, my passport, a hidden hundred dollar bill for emergencies, a travel toothbrush and paste, extra set of underwear, keys to the house, library card, Eastport bank information and stuff like that. I'm ready to walk out of the house, grab the bag and hit the road at any time. Now, if there was a way for hubby to retire early, I'd already be there but we really need his full retirement pay so I sit here and daydream.

Another reason for taking our good furniture up now is that all the TV shows on selling houses that I watch on HGTV advise to have your house not cluttered and not much furniture in it. They seem to think it sells better with minimal stuff in it. Since the house will go on the market in a year and a half, we want to start clearing out so the house will show as well as possible. I don't mind living without all the comforts, don't need a 3 piece living room suite here, two rocking chairs in front of the fireplace suits us just fine for now.

[elston]

Corgis, I just read your idea and I thnk it is grand! I havent been as organized about it, but out here in San Diego I have started ordering scarves and gloves and winter hats, and a sweat shirt jacket and other warm clothing, I know I will need them; I know I am going to move to Maine; I just don't know when.

[Miss Blue]

Originally Posted by elston

Oh ILUVMAINE: I so understand what you are saying and I feel it right along with you. I am sitting in a california style pink stucco house with roses and palm trees, and like you I haven't even decorated for the holiday either. Once my DP and I decided to move and put the house for sale in the front yard....I have been in emotional limbo.

I want to be in Maine where I have family and friends, where my forebearers are buried, and where I understand and know the trees and lakes and mountains and the ATLANTIC Ocean and where I am known by them. I want to order seeds from Johnny's catalog and know how to grow them and know the feel of loam in my hands and to be where I can identify the weeds, as well as the birds and the flowers. I long for it.

My partner comforts me with his assurance that it will all come to pass--but sometimes I feel "like a stranger in a strange land". I just want to know that I am on my way and that I am coming home to Maine.

Elston, such a beautiful post as always..I pray that you will soon be home in Maine and please let all the "grandparents" know

[dramamama6685]

Though I don't have a Maine box started, we did pick up a few prints and hung them on our living room walls. Used a picture of high and low tide that DH took as well as a shadow box of sea shells. It gives me a sense of purpose and peace in my everyday life to be surrounded by these things. (corny, but true)

[elston]

Originally Posted by blue62

Elston, such a beautiful post as always..I pray that you will soon be home in Maine and please let all the "grandparents" know

Blue62, I will be letting them know. I even think they may know before I even get there. I know that the rocks and cliffs (tunkashila) and the lakes and the trees and the wingeds and the four leggeds will see me coming.

My mom and dad's ashes are scattered in a glen behind the outdoor chapel at the Ferry Beach Church Camp; my uncles and grandparents and my great great aunt and her beloved husband and children are all buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Portland; I will certainly go and visit them and let them all know "I am home".

That brings up another passage in my great great aunt's journal from which I have been quoting. In May 1860 she described a trip to Evergreen Cemetery to visit her late husband. Her description of the event is beautiful.

May 1

Another fine morning. Mrs. Foster and I went to the Plains to meeting. Heard Mr. Weston preach. His text was “And they found fault.” Met a great many old friends there and took dinner with Emma. Mrs. Buckley, Mrs. Hannah Stenenz and her husband went with me to the Cemetery.

I felt that I should love always to be there by the “Graves of the Household”. The shrubbery is all doing well which I set there last season. Oh, the songs of the pines is one continuous prayer. The birds are the choiristers and the silent marble the preacher. We arrived home in safety. "

[msina]

http://bestsmileys.com/clapping/3.gif (broken link) wonderful!

[Elcarim]

Originally Posted by msina

http://bestsmileys.com/clapping/3.gif (broken link) wonderful!

I'll second that applause!