Greetings from Acadia National Park

Finding My Ten Year Old Self at Acadia National Park

My husband and I recently had the pleasure of sharing some time in our favorite playground in all the world, Acadia National Park.  We biked the carriage trails for hours and had the chance to paddle on Eagle Lake, Jordan Pond and Seal Harbor.   We hiked Cadillac Mountain to take in the views of the Maine coast and drove up at dawn to see the very first rays of light that hit the eastern seaboard of the United States.

I recently finished “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rueben.  There were many suggestions to finding some happiness everyday, one of my favorites  was  that a person should try to remember what they loved to do at the age of about ten years, and chances are that if they  pursue that same activity now it will give them just as much pleasure as it did so many years ago.  When I began to look back I realized as a child growing up in Maine I was very rarely indoors. I was up with the sun, on my bicycle and off, usually for the entire day, only to return home as dinner was being placed on the table.

 This must be the explanation for the shear joy I obtain when I am playing in Acadia National Park.  The day has no specific hour, my body tells me when I am hungry and when I am tired. Each day we spend there finishes with a big flop of exhaustion on the bed, followed by the deep sleep of a child. It is the existence of a ten year old, and what a wonderful, magical, existence it is.
We visit multiple times every summer, three or four days at a time. I know that I can always find that little girl somewhere in the woods of Acadia, and some times, when I am flying effortlessly on one of those deliciously long downhill sections of the carriage trails, I swear I can feel my braids flapping in the wind.

Sincerely,
Anna