On the Arno. Here’s what I posted as an update on “About me and my blog.”
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.
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.