Life Downeast

Life Downeast

A conversation with Jasper Beach

A conversation with Jasper Beach

At Jasper Beach there is reliability, there is calm, there is resolute determination, there is serenity and beauty, there is water and there are the stones and the stories they tell to those that listen. It is as if being surrounded by trusted friends in a place that offers a solemnity unmatched amidst tide and water.

Some thoughts from a PFA

Some thoughts from a PFA

Any place can be uniquely beautiful, but it’s the people who have lived there all their lives who are the caretakers. Mainers know what they’re doing, and you — the vacationer, the new resident, even the one-time visitor — are here because of that. So, contribute whenever possible and however you can; Mainers will accept and respect ideas, especially when they foster that same sense of place they hold dear.

A Downeast life in Cutler

A Downeast life in Cutler

He was a boat captain, an airplane pilot, a devoted family man and a passionate community member. At home, Patterson lived life by offering himself with his knowledge, his faith and his determination to meet any moment when it came to the machinations of “the way life should be” in Cutler. From his contagious enthusiasm at every Fourth of July celebration to his calming touch of the guitar strings at Sunday church services, his thumbprint on the town is everywhere

A Downeast life — Starboard

A Downeast life — Starboard

They were two peas in a pod. Their walks down the road were legendary. They did not walk far, yet it still took them a good while because of all the stops they would make on their travels. A stop to wave, extend a greeting to a passerby, a neighbor, a stranger even, it did not matter — their walks were a greeting to any and all in Starboard. And by the time the roadside visit with them was over, one almost felt like family.

A Valentine tribute to a couple’s devotion

A Valentine tribute to a couple’s devotion

Anyone meeting Lois and Vernon Sprague for the first time would have the same experience. You would knock on the door looking for someone to tell you about this place called Starboard. She would answer, smile and invite you in to talk. Later, you leave feeling like their neighbor and friend.

A paler shade of red?

A paler shade of red?

I have a soft spot in my heart for those who ply the waters to put food on our table. They make a living doing what generations before them have done. Their boats that ply these waters are ornaments on a tapestry of hard work, perseverance and a deep respect to a sea that both gives and takes. And the sea does take.

Finding the most unusual things every day

Finding the most unusual things every day

Living life Down East is one long journey, if you think about it. The path can lead you most anywhere, physically and spiritually. There is boundless beauty everywhere. All you have to do is take the time to see it and realize what seems special and unusual to the visitor is home for us.

What we feel when in sight of the sea

What we feel when in sight of the sea

“O! the joy.” — Who hasn’t seen the ocean for the first time and not had a similar sentiment swell from within? Not many of us. Our feelings are personal yet remain a shared experience because of our primordial connection to water. The comforting salve the ocean provides to us in sight and sound causes emotions to bloom —be it a smile or a tear— revealing our joy and wonder when in company with the ocean.

Lubec — a town of wind and whispers

Lubec — a town of wind and whispers

The storm was fierce. She tries to hold fast to the pilings that moored her all these years, but her brittle bones snap from that last bite of a January storm. Her scream was horrific, though no one heard it. In that moment, wind howling, surf pounding unforgiving...

Crows, ravens and other avian delights

Crows, ravens and other avian delights

You hear them before you see them — usually early morning, well before the time you want to get up. One calls, another answers and just like that it’s a conversation in prime numbers with more voices joining by the minute. Crows, ravens and other avian delights are something I never pondered until I arrived Downeast.

Keepers of the light

Keepers of the light

I look at my hands, wretched, blistered, black from soot and oozing oil. I lift the glass, light the wick, mumble in my dreary sleep, “Let there be light,” and there is light. There will always be light.

Remembering a ‘silly old bear’

Remembering a ‘silly old bear’

Because when life throws the good, the bad and the sometimes questionable things at us, it will be the people in our lives that make it all so very interesting and undeniably rich every single day.

Imagining island life

Imagining island life

When I look to islands today, I see yesterday — island and islanders — looking right back at me. I see pointy spires of trees catch and hold fog as it annoys, gulls floating on bands of unseen air, rocks pummeled by surf, the spray wetting my view.

Here’s to hope!

Here’s to hope!

Life is a clock, and hope is that internal mechanism within life we must wind every day.