We can’t remember exactly how it came about, this trip to Maine. We remember having the conversation, just not what it entailed or how it led us north. It could have been weather-related, prompted by our pre-summer selves already desperate for an escape from the heat that blankets Virginia. Or maybe it was just that it had been five full, COVID-ridden years since our last trip and it was time for a revival.…
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Upon receiving my cousin’s wedding invitation, I turned into a cartoon villain. Fingers and brows tented, I smirked. “Excellent,” I said. With that invitation, I had reason to go to Maine, the only state east of the Mississippi River I’d never set foot in and home to Acadia National Park, an almost 50,000-acre wonderland of rugged and rocky Atlantic coastline, woodlands, lakes and ponds.…
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There’s a lot I find appealing about lighthouses. I like that they exist to guide us through troubled waters, the way they serve as bright beacons of assurance in the midst of a mess. I like their history, the stories of harrowing rescues and narrow escapes from catastrophe, stories of vanished lighthouse-keepers or vivid tales of bravery and independent existences.…
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