Hello my lovely readers! I spent the last week in Baxter State Park, in the Highlands of my home state of Maine. Dirt roads, no electricity or cell service, just wild, protected places. I’ve emerged from that wilderness with clarity and peace.
I rose before the sun to climb the rugged slopes of Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak. I walked wooded trails in search of moose and bears and kayaked in the shadow of The Greatest Mountain. I read books under cover of a lean-to as rain poured down upon the lush woods around me. In the safe embrace of the forest I enjoyed solitude - the deep, reflective kind that worked the knots out of my problems while I simply stared out into the wilderness. My hair went wild, I reveled in scraped knees and sore muscles.
I met kindred spirits out in the fresh air, our meaningful conversations drifting off into the sky above. The haunting cry of the loon at Daicey Pond both calmed my spirit and fanned the wild embers in my soul. At Abol Stream I drifted off to sleep, calmed by a lullaby of torrential rains and rushing water, the sound so thunderous it drowned out the tensions in my mind. Release. Abandon. Restoration.
I have been feeling a deepening love for my native Maine homeland where I was born and raised. And as you know I have a passionate love for Scotland, my ancestral homeland. In this restorative time in the forest and mountains of the Maine Highlands, I shed the internal conflict I have been wrestling with for several years. I don’t have to choose between the two places. My heart has two homes, and I look forward to continuing my love story with both of them.
I’ll share more from my trip but for now I will sign off. I would love to hear how you have been, and what your plans are for enjoying the upcoming autumn season! My plans involve flannel shirts, my favorite blanket, pumpkin spice everything, apple picking in my hometown, lots of reading, and forest walks where the sylvan silence is pierced by my footfall upon crunching leaves.
Thanks for reading!
Lilly x
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