One of my dearest friends who I always visit when I come home to Maine is actually one of my mom's dearest friends too. She taught my Sunday school class when I was about 11 or 12 and ever since then we've held annual girl camp outs with canoeing, foil dinners, skinny dipping, blueberry picking and foot massages. Only in the last few years have the camp outs fallen away as we girls have moved to all corners of the country, but we still try to get together with Chrissy whenever we come home.
Chrissy's home has the peaceful loveliness of a temple. Her home is full of thoughtful details (cool water with lemon when I arrived!); blooming, growing things; delicious and healthy treats and plenty of handmade goodness. She and her husband built their home stick by stick and it's still a labor love, changing and improving as the years go by.
Each thing in her home is there with purpose, there is no excess, no quantity in lieu of quality. She'd rather have fewer wooden spoons, than oodles of plastic ones. Deep blue, glass dishes are washed and dried by hand in a beautiful, gray slate, farm-style sink.
One of the wonderful things about Chrissy is that she LOVES her work as a reflexologist. She derives genuine joy from giving other people comfort and health and considers it a privilege to share her gift. And what a gift it is! I absolutely melt under her hands. Some people just have knowing hands and she is one of those people. She can read the bottoms of your feet and ascertain the health of the rest of your body, even where you're carrying stress or if your digestion is sluggish.
She's one of the most delightful combinations of hippie and Christian; so peaceful and kind, so gentle in her dealings with people, the land, and any living thing. I always feel so relaxed as soon as I cross her threshhold. It's like entering a time warp though. Somehow I passed the entire morning there, well into the afternoon. Driving down the long dirt road to her homestead in the woods, you feel like you completely leave the world and all notions of schedules and hurrying behind you. Spending time with Chrissy is always such a good reminder of what's important; kindness, living mindfully, gentleness and simplicity.
