What happened to you today that let you know Maine is "Home" (Portland: middle-class, sale)

[ILUVMAINE]

Originally Posted by Elcarim

I was just thinking that EVERY day I'm reminded in a gazillion ways that Maine is home, and I'm so anxious to get there. I feel out of place and so discontented. It's that unexplainable feeling that our time here is over. Time to move on! I think you can only understand if you've experienced it.

My sweet husband keeps telling me, "We'll be there soon." And I know we will!

Elcarim, I can so relate to how you are feeling. I sometimes think if I don't get to Maine I would rather not be alive. My family moved so far away and even though I have been wanting to go to Maine, I stayed because they were still here. Only have the one son and the two living grandchildren. Now, that they have left and moved farther south, I am really desparate to move up, but can't find a job or a house to rent! So, here I sit, one week before Christmas, no decorations, and too depressed to do anything but stare at pictures of Maine.

[elston]

Originally Posted by ILUVMAINE

Elcarim, I can so relate to how you are feeling. I sometimes think if I don't get to Maine I would rather not be alive. My family moved so far away and even though I have been wanting to go to Maine, I stayed because they were still here. Only have the one son and the two living grandchildren. Now, that they have left and moved farther south, I am really desparate to move up, but can't find a job or a house to rent! So, here I sit, one week before Christmas, no decorations, and too depressed to do anything but stare at pictures of Maine.

Oh ILUVMAINE: I so understand what you are saying and I feel it right along with you. I am sitting in a california style pink stucco house with roses and palm trees, and like you I haven't even decorated for the holiday either. Once my DP and I decided to move and put the house for sale in the front yard....I have been in emotional limbo.

I want to be in Maine where I have family and friends, where my forebearers are buried, and where I understand and know the trees and lakes and mountains and the ATLANTIC Ocean and where I am known by them. I want to order seeds from Johnny's catalog and know how to grow them and know the feel of loam in my hands and to be where I can identify the weeds, as well as the birds and the flowers. I long for it.

My partner comforts me with his assurance that it will all come to pass--but sometimes I feel "like a stranger in a strange land". I just want to know that I am on my way and that I am coming home to Maine.

[ILUVMAINE]

Originally Posted by sjlcu

Thank you all for your kinds thoughts and prayers....I really didn't mean to hijack the thread. It's just threre is such kindness and warmness on this board and the genuine people. If you come through like this on an internet forum I can only imagine what it must be like in person. I'm through the worst of it now. The moment of death 9:40 pm CST 12/07/03 18 days after being diagnosed with leukemia and 19 days before Christmas. It's always there, the pain and sadness but I don't often allow myself the wallowing. Tonight, I'm wallowing. I'm also exposing myself to you all and truthfully, well truthfully I'm munching on warm pizza and sloshing back some cold beer and scanning real estate sites and reading a book and avoiding answering the phone and wishing and wishing and wishing all manner of wishes and although life isn't what I expected I can think of no better place to share it than here tonight. Thanks so much for the cyber hugs which will have to tide me over till I get a real one from a real by God flesh and blood Maine addressee. Thank you.

Stacie

Stacie,
My heart aches for the pain you are going through tonight. I will pray for you and "someday" we will both get to where we really want to be. Our hearts are already there, the rest of our bodies just need to catch up.

[Elcarim]

I do understand, my friends!

While I can't BE in Maine, I continue to surround myself WITH Maine! I have set about my days filling my heart, mind and home with as much of Maine as I can. I am a firm believer that reality begins in our hearts, is moved into action by our minds and is then manifested in the external realm as we simply begin to walk in our destiny. I learned long ago that what you put your focus on becomes your reality! It's really as simple as that.

So, let's put away the negative thoughts and expectations (and yes, I know I'm preaching to the choir here!) and focus on the life that is to come - the life of which we dream - and may all our dreams become reality!

YaYa/YoYo Christmas Party 2008 - See ya there!!!

[dramamama6685]

Originally Posted by Elcarim

I do understand, my friends!

While I can't BE in Maine, I continue to surround myself WITH Maine! I have set about my days filling my heart, mind and home with as much of Maine as I can. I am a firm believer that reality begins in our hearts, is moved into action by our minds and is then manifested in the external realm as we simply begin to walk in our destiny. I learned long ago that what you put your focus on becomes your reality! It's really as simple as that.

So, let's put away the negative thoughts and expectations (and yes, I know I'm preaching to the choir here!) and focus on the life that is to come - the life of which we dream - and may all our dreams become reality!

YaYa/YoYo Christmas Party 2008 - See ya there!!!

Maybe I'll get 2 webcams one for those who make the party and one for me.. so that we can meet ..well sort of anyway.

[quelly]

Originally Posted by Elcarim

I was just thinking that EVERY day I'm reminded in a gazillion ways that Maine is home, and I'm so anxious to get there. I feel out of place and so discontented. It's that unexplainable feeling that our time here is over. Time to move on! I think you can only understand if you've experienced it.

My sweet husband keeps telling me, "We'll be there soon." And I know we will!

Hi there El! Your words really make sense to me right now. My husband and I are really into moving to Maine. We wanted to do it within 6 months of October, and now it looks like our best bet is someday L. This has been tough, everything is going well for us, but in my mind I am saddened that a move just seems to not be in our immediate future.

I actually had to step away from this forum for a bit because some of the stories of struggles of others wanting to relocate to ME were not helping my sadness L

Your “feeling of our time here is over… That is what I have been experiencing since our trip to Maine. I feel like I have grown out of our house, my job, and our location. This is weird because I have always loved my house & job dearly. Now I am open to exploring J Actually fascinated by it.

Our move to Maine has not been received well here with friends, they simply do not want us to talk about it. So DH and I talk and talk and talk, but it pains me a little not to be able to share this BIG dream that we have.

On an opposite note, we have had a couple of encounters here that seem pretty meaningful. We run in to acquaintances from Maine or New England that understand our desire to move. Those are very positive conversations.

I have started accepting my mild sadness and am swallowing the idea it may take us a while. That is really tough, but if I don’t do it I will miss LIFE happening around me J I have had some job search success J This means, some places have called and my Resume has been re-reviewed. No hits, but I have to think of this as positive and the right opportunity has not come along just yet. OK that part is really hard too J

So back to the original “What makes Maine HOME?” I have tried to bring a little of that here so I can tune back into LIFE J I loved how everyone every where talked to you!!!! Truly amazing that strangers can converse!!! We noted when we got back to Maryland how others turn, shift their eyes, or simply ignore a simple HI THERE. So for the last few weeks I have tried talking to everyone I meet, and it is magicalJ Something SO simple is so refreshing. It may just be the holidays, but the response is very good and heartening. So in a very small way, Maine (Home) can be anywhere.

This SO does not change my mind about moving J

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year (maybe 08 will be the year)!

[corgis]

I understand all of you that can't get to Maine right now but are consumed with a terrible longing to be there. I am right in there with you.

Here's what I did to stop or to slow down the depression of having to be in WV for the next couple of years. Might work for some of you, might not, but it's working for me so I'll share.

Buy one of those 15 gallon plastic tubs with a lid and put it somewhere close to you but also out of sight of people who don't understand your longing. Sit down quietly somewhere and really think about what your lifestyle in Maine will be, how different, how the same. For instance, if you like wine with dinner, think about corkscrews, etc.

Make a list of everything you can think of that you want for your lifestyle and then whenever you feel blue or depressed, either go to a store, get on eBay or whatever and find and buy just the right corkscrew for your home in Maine. Corkscrew analogy is just an example, it could be winter socks or gardening clogs or anything.

Put the corkscrew in the plastic box and mark it off your Maine list. Knowing that you are making progress in your move to Maine and you can see all those things that are important to your move will help lift your spirits just a little bit.

In my Maine plastic box right now is a wonderful Christmas tree skirt I found at a yard sale here in WV. It has bears, moose and ducks appliqued around it. A bud vase from the Shard Pottery Company in Dover-Foxcroft, a pair of thick, heavy socks, a set of fish napkin rings, a set of 4 Halloween placemats and a corkscrew shaped like a fish.

Whenever I get those wanting to be in Maine blues, I open the box and I can almost see where they will go once I get up to Maine.

[msina]

Excellant post corgis! What a lovely idea.

[Bydand]

along the same line as corgis "Maine Box" I know somebody who wanted to get back so bad that on one of their trips through the area they took one of those large plastic totes and filled it with pine needles and a couple of pinecones. When they got to missing the place they would haul out the box have a bit of Maine with them. The smell, the feel; and for a bit, even sitting in their living room in Kansas, they could be in touch and transported back. The daughter sometimes would kick off her shoes and socks and stick her feet in the box because she loved to walk barefoot through the trees on their property here.

[Elcarim]

Wonderful, Corgis! I do the same thing! I have been buying little things here and there for our Maine adventure. It does give you sense of progress that is so necessary in the "hurry up and wait" stage.

Also, while we were there in March, we collected little pieces of Maine (as I do most everywhere I go) but my Maine collection is priceless to me! I picked up a huge piece of driftwood off the beach in Lincolnville - I can still smell the ocean in it! I got some blue clam shells (I think that's what they are - I've never seen blue ones!) and several pine cones of a variety of sizes. And, of course, I collected several rocks. I added them all to a few things we collected here this fall, and voila - who we are is melded together with who we are to become!

That collection now adorns my end table in the living room so that we can have a constant reminder of where we belong and will soon be. It was only natural, with my inherent deep connection to nature, that these things represent Maine to me.