Getting back to nature—a wonderful weekend

So, as one can probably guess by now, I've been insanely busy of late. Too busy for Gather, too busy for my business blog, too busy for just about anything but moving, packing, unpacking, and catching up on the client work I haven't been able to get to with all the moving, packing and unpacking. It's been pretty stressful, and although I'm making good headway on everything, I had reached the point, about a week ago, where it was all too much, and my mind was rebelling on itself again, telling me "you're not going to work. Knock it off!"

Enter Nick, my lovely boyfriend, who had the lovely idea to take the weekend to visit my mother (who, by the way, is a Gather neophyte—check her out sometime if you're so inclined) in her East Dixfield, ME farmhouse.

Mom moved to Maine from Rhode Island at the beginning of this year—six months after I moved from Rhode Island to Massachusetts. During most of the years I was growing up (from when I was about 8 until I was about 19), my grandparents lived in Belmont, ME, which was also known as Morill, if I remember correctly. When I was a kid, we went up every summer to visit, and being a city girl at heart, I was always scared out of my wits when we went—not because of an inherent fear of nature, but because I was completely unaccustomed to the complete darkness that surrounded us in my grandparents' house at night. That, and the fact that my family were massive Stephen King fans (he lived only half an hour from my grandparents' house, they were pleased to tell me when I misbehaved), and thus I had spent much of my leisure time reading about insane, messed-up things happening to people who lived in Maine. Not the best recipe for a good night's sleep.

Fortunately, however, I'm older now, and the dark doesn't bother me anymore. In fact, I've realized that I rather like it. The last time we came up to visit, we spent the entire weekend sleeping in a huge tent out in the backyard, and I got to watch the full moon as I drifted off to sleep. This time, we were on a hideously uncomfortable air mattress (fortunately, only for the night) in the living room, where we camped out and watched Practical Magic before drifting off to sleep, with only the crickets' song to keep us company. It's near impossible to find that kind of peace in Somerville.

On Sunday, Nick insisted that we go canoeing—an experience I've only sort of had once (at my best friend's kid's summer camp, I canoed for a grand total of 10 minutes at the lake the camp was on). At a little place called Bethel Outdoor Adventures in Bethel (which, apparently, you have to drive through Mexico and Peru to get to—two towns outside of East Dixfield), you can give them $50 and get fully outfitted to send three people on a canoe down a river—I forget which river is there, but it was lovely—and they'll drop you off ten miles upstream so you can make your way down. My first time rowing was terrific—it was a gorgeous early-fall day, just started to get chilly, and the sky was bluer than I think I've ever seen it. Apparently, the leaves are just starting to turn up there, so I got a chance to see some lovely orange and green leaves, several birds, rocks and water and nature as far as the eye can see. It was invigorating and relaxing all at once—and an experience I have decided I need to have again.

Why don't I connect with nature more often? Sometimes, living in a city for so long, you find yourself grasping at what little nature your schedule and the city planners will afford you—in Somerville/Cambridge (MA), a walk along Memorial Drive or the bike path to Davis, maybe a trip to Watertown where there's a river and tree-lined path; when I was in Providence, a walk through Roger Williams Park, or through Pawtuxet village by the river (rivers are big with me)—and forgetting that part of the joy in life is allowing yourself some time to just be completely absent from the city, and reconnect with trees and rivers and rocks. Remember that there's more to life than the morning commute, or today's sports scores, or what's on NBC tonight.

This weekend I realized that I need more nature in my life. So, now that I'm in my new space, and have some room to be productive, I've decided to dedicate some time every week to finding nature—wherever it is—and enjoying it for a while.