by RJ Heller | Aug 31, 2025 | Life Downeast
We all try to emulate our parents in one way or another. Sometimes it is with the embrace of a lesson learned, a skill mastered or a full-fledged attempt to follow in their footsteps. Here Downeast the importance of work is apparent and with it comes an intense desire...
by RJ Heller | Jul 28, 2024 | Life Downeast
There is an almost perfect concave-cupped cove in Machiasport that will listen to your thoughts. It has been here for eons of time. Its shore is covered in stones of all size, shape and color. There is no sand here, only brightly polished stones of granite, red...
by RJ Heller | Feb 14, 2024 | Life Downeast
I forget what the conversation was about, but I remember it happening just after my wife and I moved here to live the proverbial “the way life should be.” Someone said to me: “You wouldn’t understand because you are a person from away.” I asked: “What’s a person from...
by RJ Heller | Apr 27, 2023 | Life Downeast
For Captain. Andrew Patterson: 1956 — 2023 The boat ride to the island is a trip for the senses. The wind touches one’s face; the sound of waves, the boat’s motor amidst the cry of hovering gulls all compete for acceptance. The passengers on board the Barbara...
by RJ Heller | Apr 16, 2023 | Maine Reads
“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.” — Henry David Thoreau ******* This new collection of essays touches personal loss in a unique way. Rather than deal with it by only embracing the past through personal memories, both tenses —past and present—...
