Love Letters to Maine
If you’re looking to read a love letter to Maine or three, Chelsea Diehl’s Just Up the Road and Amy Calder’s Comfort is an Old Barn both fit the bill. They strike two distinct tones, with Calder having grown up in Somerset County and working as a reporter based out of Waterville. Diehl is a relative newcomer to the state on a personal journey of exploring spots on and off the beaten path throughout the state. Having read both in quick succession, I pulled out some of these writings’ striking quotes about what Maine means.
Let’s start off with a sentence that jumped right off the page at me - Calder’s observation about the woods is such a simple seeming observation, but it encompasses the near-entirety of so many Maine childhoods.
“No matter what else we did, our attention would eventually return to the woods.” - Calder, pg. 14
“We were swiftly struck by a welcomed, almost baffling sense of belonging. We were home.” - Diehl pg. 5
“At the beginning of this year, when I would mention to someone that I was completing something I was calling one-hundred adventures in Maine, I was often met with “Just Maine? Nowhere else?” And the answer was always an emphatic yes, just Maine. I could do this journey a thousand times over and still feel like I was just scratching the surface of the Pine Tree State. I have everything I could ever dream of inside my own state’s borders and it feels really good to fully appreciate that.” - Diehl pg. 173
“I call Maine home because, every time I leave, I can’t wait to come back. I appreciate the honesty of the people here, the beauty of the area, the fantastic food, the ocean and mountains, the simplicity of it all…” - John Walsh (Diehl) pg. 215
“I spent a lot of time in cities when I was younger and loved exploring the arts and culture they offered, but I’ve never been so happy as I am right here in Maine, where the air is fresh, the countryside and coast are exquisitely beautiful, and the people hardworking and sensible. They tell the best stories, and I get to share them. I’ve never regretted coming back, and it is here I will stay. Maine is home.” - Calder pg. 71
“This is all to say, I guess, that we Mainers had, and still have, a unique and inimitable way of being in the world. Which is wicked good for us. We wouldn’t want to claim being from anywhere else. Like, from away.” - Calder pg. 129