Today’s gratitude is late, but I have a valid excuse. Maine. Do I need to say more? I think not. But I will anyway.

More than any other vacation land (see how I did that, license plate aficionados?), Maine is my happy place. I don’t own a place here, but in fact live life one better. For 30ish years, I have visited Maine as the guest of one of two college friends–one up in Bar Harbor and one near Freeport. Every year except for last year–a year I did visit Maine but safely keeping to my family pod at two different rentals (one near Bar Harbor, one near Freeport…like a moth to the flame).

This weekend, the routine is back. I’m at my friend’s house near Freeport (I’m not telling the lake but it’s near all those countries like Poland). For the first time, our kids are not here, nor spouses, nor Katie Puppy, K9 ranger. But the dock overlooking the morning fishermen and afternoon tubing kids is here. Also here: the loons calling back and forth all night long. As are the breeze in the quaking aspens and the chimes of the boatyard bells and the shade of numerous evergreens. The easy friendship and conversations are here–peppered this time with the honesty and pain that bubbles up from all of us after the challenges of the last year. These are the moments and sounds and smells and really good beer that zoom cannot convey. This is the routine that I missed this past year, more than visiting a new country or city, more than indoor dining, or art exhibits.

Today’s gratitude. Routine, Maine, old friends. Oh, and lobster. The Way Life Should Be.