I think that summer should mean warm, lazy days full of a whole lot of doing nothing. Some of my best memories of childhood are of aimless bike riding and afternoons looking for sand dollars. It doesn't sound terribly productive, but I believe that having all that free, empty time was essential for successfully learning and making and doing on subsequent days.
But we live in Bar Harbor and run a retail operation, and summer actually means some serious scrambling to create more, do more, earn more before the chill winds of fall send the visitors scurrying home. We've both been crazy busy; even days when we're supposed to be off-duty are full of appointments and emails and phone calls. I love the heightened energy and liveliness in town, and I've always loved being busy. But the last couple days reminded me just how wonderful it is to take an occasional day and not do anything.
The kids are out of school, but day camp hasn't started yet, so I've done some schedule juggling so that I can spend some time with them before we start our summer routine. My kids like to bike and hike and do all the fun outdoor things you can do here on this wonderful island, but the past couple of days, we didn't do much of anything at all. We got ourselves to the beach, and plopped ourselves down for hours. We came into Bar Harbor and ate lunch on the Village Green and sat beside the pier throwing rocks in the water. We ate ice cream. And though there were plenty of things I could have been doing, I let myself enjoy doing nothing much at all. I'm hoping I can make time to do nothing at least once a week all summer. I think it might be the best therapy of all.
Now that my couple of days doing nothing are over, let me tell you about the extra activity we'll have here at Spruce & Gussy tomorrow. It's Legacy of the Arts Week in Bar Harbor, and there have been concerts and open studios and gallery shows all week. Tomorrow night there is an Art Walk, with businesses all over Bar Harbor featuring an artist and their work, complete with demonstrations and special displays. Here at Spruce & Gussy we'll be featuring the work of two artists, Jennifer Judd-McGee and Bill Sanborn.
I found that it was really difficult to get a decent picture of a mirror, but here is one of the pieces that will be here tomorrow night, a mirror handmade by Bill featuring Jen's artwork. We'll also have some new work of Jen's just for the evening, including originals and prints of her work, as well as her new tea towels. Bill will have his beautiful woodwork on display, including bowls, lamps, and more of these mirrors. And of course we'll have wine and snacks, too.
We hope to see you there. Hopefully after you've had a lovely day of doing nothing much at all.
–Patti
