by The Rev. Dr. Stephen Applegate, Interim Rector

Dear Friends,

These days, few of us correspond by physical letters delivered by the US Postal Service. First-class mail volume has significantly decreased, with some reports indicating an 80% drop since 1997. This decline is linked to the rise of electronic communication, such as email and online bill payment, which has reduced the need for traditional mail.

However, one of my old friends and I still correspond by letter. Well, that’s not entirely true. He sends me physical letters, and I respond to him by email. It’s not at all a fair trade. My friend is an 81-year-old Episcopal priest whom I got to know during one of my many interim assignments. He was living in Central Ohio at the time, helping out whenever parishes needed someone for Sunday supply. Once spring arrived, though, he packed up his old jeep and drove to his cabin in Hodgdon, Maine, where he stayed until the leaves were off the trees.

A few years ago, he moved to the cabin permanently where he lives year-round (in spite of the harsh winters). Enduring the winter is worth it to him because the summers are extraordinary. In his latest letter, he had just returned from spending time with his family—15 in number—at the farm on Mount Desert Island, where they have gathered for over 40 years. He offered these thoughts after he got back to his cabin.

“I returned home to confront whatever comes next. At 81 that does become, increasingly, a question to ponder. How wonderful it is still to be able to enjoy the glories of this part of the world…to tramp…to do chores…to fish…to hunt…to watch moose, deer, bear, and all sorts of marvelous critters going about their business only a brief walk away…to sit in solitude on a fallen tree in the utter stillness of the endless woodlands and say one’s prayers…to have a sandwich and a read sitting in a meadow full of wild apple trees…”

People have told him that living as he does requires giving something up, that it was, somehow, a lesser manner of life. He disagrees. He sees living as he does to be a privilege. He gets to “sit on the porch and hear nothing but the hum of insects. He’s able “to look up at the night sky unimpeded by any ambient light and see a million million stars as clearly as if they were but a few feet away.” He seems to be on to something.

I never fail to come away refreshed after reading one of his epistles, so I thought I’d share his latest in the hope that you will experience some of the peace his reflections provide to me. I wish I could send each of you this particular “Dear Friends” by regular US Mail so you could have the experience—the pleasure—of opening a physical letter instead of this email. But this will have to do.

May you find a bit of peace as we move into August. There’s still some summer left to enjoy the glories of God’s world.

Blessings, 

Stephen Applegate