You Are Here

A maxim we inherited at Spring Bird is “You Are Here”. That statement of truth was painted on a sign near the tree swing – until it decomposed (the sign decomposed – not the tree). The phrase is also chalked on the little sandwich board that greets our guests at the cottage, and it now graces the map illustration on our website’s home page.

In the Spring Issue of Woolgathering, I wrote about how being aware of our place and the forces that shape them can enrich our experience of them and of ourselves. In a place-based approach to life, you consider the social, cultural, political, environmental, and geological forces that shape a place. I’m also interested in how memory and nostalgia add extra layers of meaning.

This morning, I am here —  in my office-place. The walls are painted a dark emerald green, and the windows don’t offer much natural light. So I have three desk lamps and two table lamps to help me to see my work. I’m surrounded by a lot of knickknacks and chotch. Most of them hold meaning but many do not. It smells like the candles I just extinguished after my morning writing rituals. My box of tic tacs are nearby as are an unsettling amount of pens, pencils, markers, and writing implements of all sorts. Sketchbooks and library books spill open to their active pages. 

This room had been my son’s bedroom for awhile, and before that it was Martha’s office. The yew tree out the two windows that I face was planted by Torkel Korling. It provides a lot of shade and privacy. Cardinals like to nest in it. There are dead oak leaves that are caught in its green needles. When the wind blows them, they catch my eye because I think they are a bird or an animal. I’m always a little disappointed when it is just a leaf. 

Where are you today? What’s your place like?

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