It's a new day, in a new continent

In Pine Grove, Niantic, Connecticut

Oct 03, 2023

Pine Grove is surrounded on three sides by Niantic River.

The sun was shining on my first morning in Connecticut, and on an early walk, I encountered some blue jays and a northern cardinal bird as I wandered around Pine Grove, the part of Niantic where I am staying for the next few days. I am very drawn to the poetry of Mary Oliver and as it happened, I heard one of her poems read aloud later in the day and here it is:

Why I wake early by Mary Oliver

Hello, sun in my face.
hello, you who made the morning
and spread it over fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety -
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light -
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

I am staying with Pat Hames - we have known each other for many years and we first met at Othona in West Dorset, when she and her late husband Bob and various members of their wider family would often be on the same holiday weeks as me and my two sons in the summer time. Pat is a retired but still very active Episcopal priest in her local area. (The Episcopal church is the United States’ part of the Anglican communion, which also includes the Church of England.)

Pat moved to live full time in Pine Grove about 8 years ago when she retired. Pine Grove is an interesting place, which was originally founded back in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by spiritualists. They began a summer camp, with members pitching tents initially and later building wooden homes on their purchased tent lots. The interest in spiritualism generally faded after WWI and the houses began to be bought by non-spiritualist folks. However, there is still a Temple on site which is open in the summer months.

I am reminded, both of the beginnings of Othona, which started as a summer camp in Essex and also of Adela Curtis’ community in Burton Bradstock, where many wooden huts were erected that members lived in. Although most of the original huts have long gone at Burton, to be replaced by much more luxurious properties, Pine Grove is still full of wooden houses - as is much of this part of New England. They vary in size and style - some clearly had more tent lots to build on than others and some have had work done on them over the years to make them livable in all year round. I enjoyed some of the gardens on my walk.

A small taste of Pine Grove gardens. Someone is all ready for Halloween.

Later in the day, I joined Pat on a monthly walk with a few church folks organised by Rachel who has a diocesan role supporting local churches in their mission and ministry. We went to Harkness Memorial State Park which is on the coast, with views across to Long Island. As we walked, we stopped occasionally for someone to share a prayer, or a poem - this was where we were given the Mary Oliver poem quoted above. I offered the opening words for Seedtime at Othona and these started our walk:

We gather here
to dedicate this day
consciously in the presence of a great, intimate mystery
which we humans know by many names,
the Spirit, within us and beyond us,
the all in all.

Views from the trip to Harkness. In the middle picture we wonder what kind of tree this is. Someone's phone helped us decide it was a type of mulberry.

I am so grateful to Pat for her friendship and hospitality at the start of this journey, so much of which will be new and unfamiliar to me. I can rest into her home and share her life for a little while - a very good preparation for the next steps.