Sacred Spot along the Sound........

Sometimes in my travels....I come across places that feel sacred.

I'm not sure analytically why a particular spot makes you sense something extraordinary....why it sings to your soul and requests or even demands you consider the bigger picture....but without a doubt these places exist.

In my wanderings up and down this long pebbled beach on "Orient Shoal".....I noticed this outcropping of rocks from a distance. A modest group of gigantic boulders rest on the beach....almost as if someone casually tossed them there to add to the scenery. My scientific husband explains they are the debris left from an ancient glacier with stopped advancing here and created Long Island.

Each rock is different....different markings....different colors. The ice tore them from their original homes in Canada.. Maine....New Hampshire. Some rocks are submerged at high tide...and wear limp brown seaweed during the day....which rejuvenates each night. Other rocks have soft sides of green algae.... some have jagged edges from erosion. Snow white herons and dark black cormorants.....perch on the rocks.

Every day since I have been here....I walk around or sit among them for a while. I feel safe and settled and at peace with them. I smile at their fortitude....no storm....no waves....nothing moves them. They will outlast me and my concerns and my little life by millions of years....it makes everything I am worried about seem very small. I walk away from them each day....and feel like they have realigned something in me during my visit. I like to think they have hidden magnets in them....which straightens out my wayward tendencies. I think I should set up camp and stay with them for a month or two....to gain certainty and fortitude in my thinking.

This evening I walked miles in the opposite direction to visit another grouping of rocks...I thought hey....if there's one sacred spot on this beach....maybe there are others.....it was a tough walk on large wobbly stones.....when I finally reached the rocks....it took me less than a minute to realize......they were duds......they didn't sing.....they had nothing to say....dullards of the boulder and other world....but it did make me appreciate my little spot even more.

Tomorrow is my last day at this house.....and it will be my last day at the sacred spot....I decided to write my wishes and dreams on a little paper tonight and leave it with them in the morning........tuck it in a secret little opening in one of the rocks.....you never know....the weather might be too nice....the sound might be too calm....they may be looking for something to do.....and of course.....it will be nice to know I'll be there too for a little while longer.

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Rain Day...................

It's a big rainy windy day here.....the storm started around 4:30 am....the roof and some of the windows are complaining with extra loud sighs and creaks. I can already feel where the cold drafts are in this hundred year old house....and wish I had some of those long stuffed "draft pillows" to put against some of the doors.

I'm on my second cup of coffee but I am not disappointed by the day.....there's small tasks that need to be done.....dishes ...a bit of laundry....a quick run to the grocery store.....and I'm enjoying the books I brought....I decided today felt like the "right day" to crack opening "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain."

In January I stopped writing....ironically a few weeks afterwards....I received second place in a writing contest judged by African journalists and just before I left....my award arrived....the huge two volume set book called "African Ceremonies." I actually met the authors....two intense women....one from the U.S. ...the other from England...who have spent ten years photographing ceremonies. I didn't meet them at a book signing or in a home...but on a back road in Niger....they had called our guide, Alberto, via satellite phone to let him know they would be in the area.....and we were in the area.....and so the arrangement was to look for each other's caravan. Amazing....our drivers found their drivers .....and we spread a blanket on the sand at our rendezvous point...and talked to these women....listening to how they crept across borders without visas...were chased by government officials.....or members of particular tribes who had qualms about being photographed.... some people believe a part of your spirit is attached to your image.

Anyways......I started doodling last month....( stick figure doodling)....and I brought the drawing book along to advance my doodling. I can't figure out if I'm going to write again or when.....I have brought projects along....but I feel like a wine bottle....corked and capped....and I just don't know if I can open up or even if I want to anymore....it is something I hope to figure out while I'm here.

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A Small Adventure........

There's a ferry service from Orient to Connecticut....so hub and I decided to go to New London, Ct and look around. Gorgeous warm day....but a few minutes on the upper deck of the ferry ...and brrrrr.....I had to duck inside for the rest of the 1.5 hour trip.

Beach Life.......

This morning, for the second morning in a row.....the sweet chirps of meadowlarks have been my alarm clock at dawn. The house if full of sunlight .....and I slip out of bed to try and make coffee ....quietly.....which is task....since this house is a hundred years old....and many floor boards has something to say when you put your weight on them.

I love this place....the hamlet of Orient....the old houses.....the small scattered farms.....and the ability to see both the Long Island Sound.....and the Bay which is part of the Atlantic Ocean.

I already collected a few real estate magazines for the area.....but owning a home here....would be in the "something to dream" about category....since many of the small historic homes run at least 1 million dollars.

But that didn't stop me from walking around the hamlet....and deciding which one or two I could live in....which garden would be perfect with only a few more flowers or a nip and tuck on an overgrown shrub. One of the historic homes even had an open house on Sunday....priced to sell....at 800K.....it was an odd ..quirky....beautiful old house.....but even I knew that a few of the floorboards felt way too soft (possible joist rot?) and the kitchen was left behind in the 60's......and one bathroom looked like it needed lots of work. Sometimes I watch those stage your home to sell shows on the Home and Garden Channel....and I'm able to pick out suspicious decorating touches. In this house.... a bright new luxurious shower curtain hanging in an out of date bathroom made me suspicious. Pull it aside and uh huh....yes.....the bathtub from hell.

There's lots of wind on this point of land....strong wind....not the kiss of a gentle breeze....so it's interesting to be out and about....walking down the narrow old streets or on the beach. You don't have the pleasure of introspection or getting caught up in your own internal thoughts.....because the wind bats at you....as if to say....think of me think of me....and you do....it's almost like a child tugging on your sleeve for attention. And it's not necessarily a bad thing.....since you feel the sun. ....the smell of water....the constant russle of leaves in thick old trees...and of course the wind....tossing your hair around....making your windbreaker or t-shirt into a sail.

Today we will go into the bigger town of Greenport about 6 miles south of here....to buy groceries....and walk around. I'd like to pop into the library and look at a history book of the area....and there are numerous art galleries along the main drag....which my hub hopes are closed on Mondays...to help me avoid temptation.

I finished one book....from my pile....a book I brought along because it was so small....The Story of My Life....Helen Keller. It's only 75 pages....but I was astonished.

I could not phantom....and still can't.....how a woman who was deaf and blind....and unable to speak well....could acquire the education, sophistication, and communication skills (in writing) which she did. For example...she attended Radcliffe.....and graduated. She studied through people spelling each word into her hand....or reading embossed text books.

Okay...can you imagine someone spelling an entire book into your hands? or touching someone's lips to read what they are saying....at a college level? The woman also mastered French and German....and was fond of German literature. I have all my senses and I can speak "pig" rough French and read enough words to get me down the street and into a coffee shop. Fini. That's it.

Possibilities......we simply limit ourselves and sell ourselves short some times.
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Love stones

Heart stones. Loves stones.

When I met the owners of our rental house last fall.....she showed me her collection of heart stones. Well...that's nice ....I thought.....but how cliche....you know.... a woman collecting heart stones.

Wow....scratch that opinion....when I looked down on the beach and found a love stone....I felt like Snoopy doing that little dance he used to do....the happy dance.

Okay....collecting heart stones is a brilliant preoccupation on the beach.
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Our Sweet Rental Home...on Orient, Long Island

We arrived at our sweet rental home late in the afternoon ....after a day of shopping and browsing the middle of Long Island. Although we visited this house and its owners on my fall trip out here....I was surprised how pretty and serene the place felt as soon as we opened the door.

In a few hours of residence we already made a simple dinner....downed a bottle of wonderful Merlot from South Africa while listening to Klezmer music....traditional Eastern European Jewish folk music. We decided to bring only world music to our house to listen to this week....so I brought Salsa and African music....hub brought Klezmer, Australian and Celtic music. I tell you with a bottle of wine in me....I was ready to stomp around on these hundred year old wooden floors and dance!!!

But instead we hit the beach.....which was hard work since the beach is composed of zillions of smooth pebbles. The waves sound lazy and slow here...almost sloppy..and after they hit the beach...thousands of small pebbles roll back with the waves creating a high pitched tinkling after sound. Because your feet sink into the pebbles....it takes a lot of work to walk on the beach and halfway back home we cheated and hit the road....so we could return before midnight...lol

I can't wait for the morning....I'm planning to get up at sunrise.....and walk into town and around the ponds which are scattered about and occupied by snow white egrets.
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A Place to Read......

I brought the books....tons of them....and here is the perfect place to read.....

Quite an old fashioned New England Bedroom