THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE

     We'll be leaving the small town life and Maine today.  We better understand the state's motto. "Maine, the way life should be". 

   It's nice here, at least in the summer.  We've seen simpler lifestyles than what we're used to and the folks here are oh so friendly.  Unlike Coconut Grove, no one would ever dream of covering up the water front.  That would be crazy.   
The local governments are not dysfunctional or corrupt. 
There are parks all over the place (Miami continues to have less than any other major U.S. city). 
 
    
 Damariscotta Lake,  Kay and Dave's place is on the left.

There's much more to the way life should be.  
I can go rowing in a longboat every morning with new friends for free and afterwards, pick up fresh food at a farmers market.   
Last night I heard shaped-note singing in a two hundred-year-old church.
      This morning we marveled at another flock of plastic flamingos in Southwest Harbor.  I don't know if that tells us what front yards should be but it made me smile.
  

 This slower life here has given us time to try new things.  Wondering if Maine's day lilies really are one-day wonders,  we tied strings around a few of them.  Sure enough, the next day they had shriveled up, died and had been replaced by a new day's blossoms.  Slow down, look closer.  See the next day's lillies waiting in line?

 We're visiting Camp Villano now (Kay and Dave's place on Damariscotta Lake).  Daughter Ellie is moving her bed every night to see if her sleeping direction affects her dreams.
   
    Another Grove resident with a summer house here marveled that he'd never heard anyone honk their car horn.  The ducks swimming past us on the lake honk a bit but we can live with that. The loons even sing.
  
     
   Miami, like any town, can have the good things Maine brags about as well.  We just have to do the work.  We have to figure out how to make our home the way is should be.