July 31, my Uncle Don's birthday. Every year his goal was get from Brooklyn, where he lived, to his cottage at Grimes Cove, Ocean Point, Maine by that day. As far as I can recall, he always made, with Aunt Bow greeting him with one of her delicious meals. I usually arrived about that time for my yearly R & R with the two of them. My 'rest and relaxation' started  in college and continued when I was a young mother and until he died in 1978. 
      Those of us fortunate enough to have special aunts and uncle know that they are the ones who love us unconditionally. At least that's true for me.

    My email is available on this blog. The few responses I receive are usually from 'companies' who tell me they can help my business and raise sales. Obviously they haven't read the blog, or even glanced at it, because as you readers know, I'm not trying to make any money or even get more readers. 
     So yesterday it was a delight to receive an email from a women named Amy, who just wanted to say hello and thank me for the blog. She had come upon it in some random search that we all do from time to time. I wrote her back and encouraged her, since she like to write, to find public forum for that. Artists, be they musicians, painters, architects, gardeners, surgeons--the list goes on and on--, and yes, writers, need an audience to complete their work.
     Let me say some more about this blog. When I first started it back in 2010 at the cottage by the seathat I rented, I told a few people about it. But then I stopped 'advertising' it and deleted it as a signature at the bottom of my email. For the past eight or so years I have let the blog just 'be.' Sometime I post often; then only once in a while (although I've kept the daily quote going every other day). Then I pick u[ and post often again, then I lay off. I travel and post pictures! I like to think that Joseph Campbell would be proud of  the way I follow my bliss. 
     I love the organic nature of A cottage by the sea. That's how the sea is! I deeply believe, that what I write is an offering to the universe. LOL, I don't mean to sound highfalutin or arrogant. No, just the opposite, humble. I want to say that this is a free gift offering, but theologically that gets extremely complicated. What I mean is that I offer this blog freely as a gift to anyone who comes upon it. I need nothing in return, but I must admit that I am inspired, affirmed, and encouraged when I know it has helped someone. 
      Final though--for now! Each one of us has a free gift to offer; we just need to figure out what it is. 

 I've started cleaning the AR (Angel Room). Really, started! After many mornings of putting it on my 'to do' list but never lifting a little angel or a book, today I've dusted and rearranged a couple of shelves, at least to feel enough success that I can stop for the day. Sometimes I wish I could channel by older sister who cleans all the time. I'm serious. Of course she doesn't have all the little sitters that I have. She never accumulated any, so there are none to get rid of. 

Do you ever have a day when you can't get going, can't get anything done? Of course you do. It's part of the human condition. Stuck! Today I started observing myself as that stuck feeling came upon me. I was sitting, so I got up and started moving around, which is a sensible first action for me since I live in a rather hyper, physically active body. Do something I told myself. I had already taken an early morning walk to avoid the heat, so  I decided to make brownies. Hmm, aside from licking the spatula, the Brownie Fairy was  preparing a little package for a friend in need. She had now created joy for someone else. 
        Advice to self: get moving and do something for someone else. Then all the other usual joys will come forth. Who knows what else I will get done?

​This is posted on several of A Cottage by the Sea blog  topics. It seems to speak to all of them. 


 I'm loving  Look for Me There; Grieving My Father, Finding Myself, Luke Russert's memoir about his recent  solitary travels around the world, taken to come to terms with the sudden death of his beloved father, Tim Russert (anchor of NBC's Meet the Press) and to more forward with his own life.  It took Luke eight years after his fathers fatal heart attack to garner the awareness that he needed time to grieve, and, the courage set out on his own and face the future. 
     I love this book because I resonate with Luke's solitary travel. I am reading it with  satisfaction that although I have embraced traveling alone, my reasons for doing so are not the same as Luke's. I started traveling alone as a pioneer of junior year abroad programs--no cell phone, and complicated telephoning possibilities. Writing letters was the way my family and I communicated, and as you might imagine, those letters, at best, passed in the air every three or so weeks. I was on my own, figuring out how to get from Paris to the place I was staying in Rome before heading to Florence. 
     Worrying was not a part of growing up in the fifties; my parents weren't worried about the year-long adventure I was taking, nor was I. At am early age, still in my teens, I learned to figure things out. I can still do that, and without worry. As an older person, what a beautiful way to feel, a beautiful reason to keep traveling. 

 Two sunny days in Ireland. Very grateful.  Our first day found us a Grange Stone Circle. Enjoy. I don't have the time or inclination to write, but as you know, a picture's worth a thousand words.

Ann Voskamp, in The Broken Way: A Daring Path into the Abundant :Life, suggests we consider the phrase, "give it forward," instead of "pay it forward." Give instead of pay! I like that little change because pay suggests that money is involved, that goods need to be exchanged, and that I can only play this marvelous game if I have cash or things. But more that that, pay it forward implies that I expect something in return. 
     Giving, on the other hand, opens up a panoply of opportunities, services, and simple gestures such as smiles. But more than that, give it forward, opens up my heart.  

I ended my last blog post with the words 'independent travel'. I'm sure you are aware  that most of my travel is independent, solitary, alone. But there are always marvelous exceptions. This Monday starts one of those. My son and I are flying to Ireland for five nights. We arrive early Tuesday morning at Shannon Airport and fly home on Sunday to Logan.  Tim's wife is going to a trapeze conference--yes, she flies through the air with the greatest of ease, so while she is away with trapezists, we will be hanging out with Druids, and checking out standing stones, burial mounds, and monasteries…and a few pubs. 

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
Gerard Manley Hopkins