Over the weekend I watched BookTV off and on, as is my wont to do on weekends. And I stumbled on to this program featuring Richard Florida talking about his book about why people live where they do. (The link will take you to the BookTV site where you can watch the show as well if you like.) He mentioned that again and again in the literature on happiness that three factors are critical to being happy: the work you do, the person you share your life with, and where you live.
Well, I have been doing work that I love for 36 years now, so I got that part nailed a long time ago. And I am now married to a person who brings me great happiness.
I moved to Maine first 36 years ago and I have loved it since the first day. The first 29 years, I lived first in rural western Maine and then in and around Portland. Great places. Where I was doing work I loved. But I was not with the right person.
Then I lived for 4 years in suburban Detroit. Where I did work I loved and was with the right person. But I did not love Michigan.
Three years ago, we moved to mid-coast Maine. Where I do work I love and live with the right person. *And* I love this place. And what I saw yesterday after a thunderstorm moved through tells part of why --
The beauty of this place is incredible. But that is only part of what makes this place deeply HOME for me. Belfast is a quirky little town. There are around 6500 of us here, an odd and not always harmonious mix of people born and raised here and the rest of us, the ones From Away. So there is working waterfront. And art galleries. Folks yearning for the return of the days of the sardine cannery. And those excited by the arrival of athenahealth, the very definition of a modern, internet-dependent business.
And every day I look out of my window and my breath is taken away by the beauty and I am awed by my good fortune to be living here.