Dear Friends,

It’s the strangest feeling, this recycling I am doing with my “hugs from Maine” from a year ago; I sort of consider them a thin slice of personal history as well as a look back at much larger forces.  I feel a deep relief and sense of gratitude as I compare where we were twelve months ago versus today.

For starters, spring here is well ahead of this time last year. Never/ever has it felt more welcome!

Compared to this time a year ago we have come a long way. The pandemic tide is draining – albeit too slowly due to vaccine hesitancy – and there is an air of guarded optimism which transcends the usual even in this season of renewed light and warmth.

One of the harbingers of spring that I most appreciate is the return of birdsong in the mornings. With that in mind, I share with you a wonderful line that recently found me…I truly love it: “Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.”    Rabindranath Tagore

With that we wish you a wonderful season and all that lies within. If you’re in these parts, do be neighborly…and keep singing.

cheers,

Peter and Terri

The following was originally sent as Images from Maine #13, June 7th, 2020:

Dear Friends,

Although we had a light frost on the last night of May, I think it’s a safe bet to say that spring has finally won out! It’s been windy but that has dried out most of the wet spots and helped keep down the black flies and it is, in a word, glorious to be thus wrapped in the balmy arms of full spring.

This little collection has me in mind of the old Chinese curse/blessing, “May you live in interesting times.” We are all certainly doing just that and I think this has influenced my thinking in looking through the archives this week.

Her Children – Walking around Calderwood Neck, Vinalhaven, I came upon a small cemetery tucked into the woods and went in to explore. I came upon this tableau and was riveted – devastated – by this woman’s loss 200 years after the fact. The horror of it all was somehow compounded upon counting the eleven little stones laid out next to her. It was, and still is, impossible to comprehend loss like this. The family had been wiped out upon exposure to plague stricken crew from a ship anchored nearby to which Mary, hoping to help, had sent her oldest son. This image resonates now, like never before…

Even as the current plague eddies around us, we are additionally deluged by reports and images of other profoundly unsettling forces afoot in the land. Today’s other three photographs speak, more positively, to the qualities that tend to see us through times like these…faith, peace and true love. The stories behind Peace and True Love are on our site.

We again want to thank you all for the exceptional kindness and thoughtfulness many have sent our way in the past couple of months…it means more than you might imagine. Thank you, thank you! And to those of you who have been buying prints online, an additional thank you, and then some.

We hope that we will see you soon and safely; until then, take great good care of yourself and those you love,

Cheers,

Peter and Terri

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