Tuesday, July 24, 2012

We're Back!






I could say so much about my vacation. Ocean Point, Maine is old in my family. Eighty-five years ago my grandparents emigrated from England to Maine and met the Sillimans, who were to become their lifelong friends. For many years, their family summered here and my mother later brought me all the way from California to see it as a child.

I haven't been in nine years. This time, my cousins, children, mother all came together and set my grandmother's ashes adrift on the waves in the exact location she had dictated. I think she would have been very pleased. Then we had a vacation. We sent the kids and men mackerel fishing and shopped in Boothbay Harbor. One day I tripled my painkillers and we trekked out on the granite coastline to visit the caves my mother and I knew the names of and to examine a tide pool large enough to swim in, which we know as Diana's Bath. We petted sharks and squirted clams. The air smelled of balsam and ocean tide. My children fell in love with the Atlantic coast and Rowan talked about a fruit copyrighting scheme so he can become rich enough enough to buy us property there. They saw Boston and Mikalh marched around the Commons with a tri-corner hat, engaging the costumed Freedom Trail guides in conversation. You could almost hear the footsteps of Paul Revere as you walked the cobblestone streets.

I would send us on vacation if I had to spend every last penny to do so. I would get us out where my kids could thrill in the dialect of another America altogether, where they could imagine living someplace other than our little town at the top of the sky. Worse than the poverty of the wallet is the poverty of the spirit that would leave us clinging like desperate barnacles to one rock for the rest of our lives.

I am home and my house is aclutter with suitcases. My email is full of things to which I must respond. School registration packets have begun to arrive and the lawn needs mowed. I would go back to sleep, clutching a balsam pillow to my face listening to what might be the sound of an ocean in my ears. I would reach through my dreams and touch that springing moss and granite coastline. I would not wake until I could go there again.

16 comments:

  1. Welcome back and Thank you. Reading this put a smile on my face. It's full of feel-good. It sure sounds like a dream vacation. =)

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    1. It was gorgeous. I feel very lucky to have gotten to have it and I'm glad to be back writing for all of you, too.

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  2. Welcome back, Tara! :) Your vacation sounds wonderful. Glad you guys enjoyed!

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    1. Thanks, Larissa. We were blessed with an embarrassment of riches.

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  3. Welcome back! This is a great summary.

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    1. Thanks, Margi. And thanks for pinch hitting for me. :)

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  4. School is almost starting, and I've yet to take my summer vacation. I am not sure it will happen. My bank account is telling me to keep dreaming, so I will. I will dream of Diana's Bath.

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    1. When we were in that boat, we went camping. I chose a place a few hours drive away with a lot of kid-friendly amenities and planned little day trips for a week. Of course, it helps to have pre-existing camping gear. Other times, we went on road trips and stayed at Motel Sixes and ate crappy diner food. I swear I did it with money that came from blown out birthday candles, Nellie. I don't know how the electricity stayed on. But I have always gone on some kind of vacation somewhere–some place to take photos and make memories and look in gift shops. We have visited a lot of relatives. If not this summer, it will happen. It's the sense of occasion that matters, especially when kids are little.

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  5. "Worse than the poverty of the wallet is the poverty of the spirit"

    I think I am going to pin this up on my wall today

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  6. Sounds amazing. I spent some time on the east coast when I was young and single. I always wished I could have taken my children there to experience it. I'm sure your kids will always remember.

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    1. I think they will, too. It's funny how broadening it can be just getting across the US. Boston felt like the Europe of America.

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    2. I agree about Boston. I loved visiting there.

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  7. I have not been to Maine, but it's on my list of summer trips to take. Problem is, I hate leaving home in the summer! Glad you're back safe and sound and it sounds like a magical vacay. :-)

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    1. I hate leaving home, too, Jo, but I love being gone once I do! Definitely get to Maine some day. It is lovely.

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  8. I too have a place that I love so much when I am home I wish I could sleep until it is time to visit again. With your description I now want to add Maine to my list of places to visit.....best get saving up!

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Faith in Ambiguity by Tara Adams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License