Update: March 15, 2023
My first entry to this blog was in November 2010 when I started spending the winter weeks at the cottage by the sea that I rented in Maine. That comforting habit continued for five years. Now it is March 2023 and the blogging continues. Every so often I write what you might call a biographical update to let you know what is important in my life at the moment. So here it is. (You can check out past bios o
My family is doing well: everyone, which means our two kids and four grandchildren, who will all be college graduates by the end of May. My two sisters and my brothers are active and happy. Jim and I are committed to staying in this old house until we can’t!! One of our rules is that we both have to be able to go up and down the stairs. So far, so good. The entire family channels my mom, whose last words before she let go at age 101 were ‘Very grateful.’
You know about me: traveling, walking, active in my church. I love visiting the older folk, which makes me laugh because before I know it I’ll be visiting myself!! Every week I tell my 102 year old friend Ruth that I am catching up with her.
If you are new to this blog, and don't know who I am, check out 'About Me' for a bio. I just read it and had to chuckle at all I have forgotten about myself. Well, at age 83, I give myself a break.
My family is doing well: everyone, which means our two kids and four grandchildren, who will all be college graduates by the end of May. My two sisters and my brothers are active and happy. Jim and I are committed to staying in this old house until we can’t!! One of our rules is that we both have to be able to go up and down the stairs. So far, so good. The entire family channels my mom, whose last words before she let go at age 101 were ‘Very grateful.’
You know about me: traveling, walking, active in my church. I love visiting the older folk, which makes me laugh because before I know it I’ll be visiting myself!! Every week I tell my 102 year old friend Ruth that I am catching up with her.
If you are new to this blog, and don't know who I am, check out 'About Me' for a bio. I just read it and had to chuckle at all I have forgotten about myself. Well, at age 83, I give myself a break.
Update: December 12, 2017
On the Arno in Florence.
I started acottagebythesea in 2009, the year I first rented a cottage in Maine for the winter. I followed that bliss for five years before it was time to stop. This blog, however, has continued because it was never about a particular cottage, but about those who are looking for solitude, silence and simplicity and who sometimes like to be alone. That still holds true for me, and I trust, for those of you following along.
Not much has changed for me except I am older, about to celebrate my 78th birthday. I still have a healthy husband who doesn’t like to travel, but loves that I do. Our grown children and their spouses are caring people. Two grandchildren are in college, two in high school. I love my three siblings, one who just turned 70, one in her early 70s, and one just experiencing what it’s like to be an
My teaching career remains a beautiful memory. I taught in a golden age when teachers helped children learn to read and love it. Teachers are still buying my book Joyful Learning in Kindergarten. It warms my heart to think that they are longing for joy, not standardized tests, to guide the teaching and learning in their classrooms.
The divinity degree I earned in 2003 remains an important foundation for what I do. For five or six years I was the spiritual care counselor for a local hospice. In 2009, two years before my mother died at age 101, I stopped the official hospice work, and to a large extent devoted my mind, body, and spirit to her. In 2015 I published Very Grateful: The Story of My Hundred Year Old Mother and Me.
I have slowed my life down. I take on fewer long-term obligations, thus leaving more time for my own choices. I am a deacon at my UCC church; I visit people on a regular basis; I help at a local food pantry; I read and do jigsaw puzzles; I keep up with family and friends; I write; and I pray. A very grateful life, for sure.
Not much has changed for me except I am older, about to celebrate my 78th birthday. I still have a healthy husband who doesn’t like to travel, but loves that I do. Our grown children and their spouses are caring people. Two grandchildren are in college, two in high school. I love my three siblings, one who just turned 70, one in her early 70s, and one just experiencing what it’s like to be an
My teaching career remains a beautiful memory. I taught in a golden age when teachers helped children learn to read and love it. Teachers are still buying my book Joyful Learning in Kindergarten. It warms my heart to think that they are longing for joy, not standardized tests, to guide the teaching and learning in their classrooms.
The divinity degree I earned in 2003 remains an important foundation for what I do. For five or six years I was the spiritual care counselor for a local hospice. In 2009, two years before my mother died at age 101, I stopped the official hospice work, and to a large extent devoted my mind, body, and spirit to her. In 2015 I published Very Grateful: The Story of My Hundred Year Old Mother and Me.
I have slowed my life down. I take on fewer long-term obligations, thus leaving more time for my own choices. I am a deacon at my UCC church; I visit people on a regular basis; I help at a local food pantry; I read and do jigsaw puzzles; I keep up with family and friends; I write; and I pray. A very grateful life, for sure.
Update: November 16, 2012
I’m here, sitting on the deck of my cottage by the sea. It’s my fourth year here and the setting is pretty much the same. Same coffee maker, same comfortable lounge chair, same view. But of course the view is always different—each wave, each ray of sunshine on the clouds, each gull flying across the vista. Every year I have come here with specific intentions, with a project and with the hope and wonderment of what I might discover. I’m not talking about the scenery but about what might be important to me on my life journey.
In 2009 I came here wanting time alone. Being by the sea was essential; serendipitously the doors of this cottage by the sea welcomed me in. I walked the beach and did a little quilting, but I just couldn’t concentrate on any craft. In 2010 I tried my hand at painting and collage. My worthy try lasted the season, but besides having no talent, I had no desire to put my heart and soul into it--undoubtedly the two go hand in hand. That year, however I began this blog, and discovered that my heart and soul were into experiencing silence, solitude and simplicity and sharing that longing with others, with the hope that I might inspire, affirm and encourage them on their journey. In 2011 my blog and longing continued. My mom died a month before my season at the cottage began, and so I spent the year grieving, remembering and being ‘very grateful’ for a mom who had lived 101 years and who had been with me for a very long time.
Today is the first day of my fourth year at the CBTS. This year I have no projects, no specific agenda. Oh, I know I’ll read, meditate, walk, sleep, eat, do a jigsaw puzzle, write this blog…. But my plan is to be. I am content to watch the water, clouds, sun, moon, waves, whatever nature presents. For years I have been trying to BE and stay in the NOW; but this year something is different. It’s more than a longing; perhaps it is who I am becoming. Um, it almost feels like a project, the ‘do nothing’ project. Stay tuned.
Update: September 29, 2012
It’s time to update this “About this Blog’”, although what I wrote in the fall of 2010 still holds true. I made my first entry at the start of my second year at the cottage by the sea, and have been blogging steadily ever since. I began blogging because I was searching for silence, solitude and simplicity and wanted to share with others on a similar path. I figured that if I sometimes like to be alone, there must be others who have a similar longing. None of that has changed.
On November 15, 2012 I will be returning to the cottage for the fourth year. Same place, same simple rental arrangement for five months. Same hour and a half drive back and forth from home to the cottage. Same general pattern: cottage during the week, home during the weekend.
This blog has never been about having a physical cottage by the sea. It is about silence, solitude and simplicity, the longing and the fulfilling. My hope is that readers will be inspired, affirmed and encouraged to find their own cottage, whatever that might mean for them.
November 2010 When someone asks me why I am writing this blog, my answer is that I go to a cottage by the sea when I want to be alone, and I like to communicate with people about life’s journeys.
Last winter I rented a cottage in southern Maine right on the ocean. I wanted to get away from the busyness of my every day life, and still be close to home. I am not a recluse and I love my family, friends and commitments. I also love sometimes to be alone, and renting this cottage by the sea gives me just the balance I am looking for.
My friends bombarded me with questions…. How did you find the cottage?... Why did you pick southern Maine?... What do you do every day?... Are you scared?... Are you lonely?... What do your husband and family think about it?... What did you discover?... What did you learn about yourself?...
And comments… I need your cottage…. I want a cottage…. I have my own version of your cottage-by-the sea…. If only I could do what you’re doing… If only I dared do what you’re doing…. I’m not certain I could be alone day after day, but I’d like to give it a try…. It wouldn’t be something I’d want to do, but I’m intrigued…. If I had a cottage I’d write my memoirs…. Be sure to read May Sarton.…
This blog is for anyone looking for their own cottage by the sea, for anyone who may already enjoy a solitary place, and for anyone who is just plain curious about the whole idea.