A Mainland Mindset
Six months ago I wrote about my parents' decision to leave Nantucket for coastal Maine. Many of you know my Dad’s family was part of the fabric of the island for generations. His parents and their parents before them, owned and operated the Nesbitt Inn on Broad street. When the boarding house was first established, the property encompassed what is now Bookworks, The Brotherhood, 21 and 19 Broad Street; both of which were connected by a breezeway and boasted a carriage house and stables in the back.
In the 80’s, when my great grandmother Mary Burgess died, my family and I moved into the house at 19 Broad. Some of my favorite middle school memories include getting off the school bus in front of the Whaling Museum and racing Todd Richard, whom I initially hated, up the street to my door. I don’t know how that started but we did it silently every day for a year, until eventually our rivalry turned into a life long friendship.
Some not so pleasant things happened at the Nesbitt Inn, so I wasn’t sad when my parents made the decision to sell it. They spent their final decade on Nantucket living at the house they just sold on North Liberty Street. It was a beautiful home, but the cost of maintaining it pushed them into the uncomfortable routine of moving out every summer, renting it, and moving back in at the end of the season. Eventually this was too much for a couple in their 70’s and they made the tough decision to move to Rockland, Maine.
Whist I lived in New York City and Chicago for the better part of 15 years, Nantucket has been my home for the vast majority of my life, and the only home my 15-year old son Griffin has ever known. It has been my launch pad and my refuge, the place I found my teaching voice and the community that supported me when I navigated cancer. Nantucket has been the place I found my power as a single mother, learned to stand on my own two feet, grow a business, ride a bicycle, launch a paddle boarding school, fight illnesses and face death.
Nantucket is and will always be the place where I home-birthed my son, taught hundreds of people yoga and how to headstand on the water, coached dozens of the island's young ladies to be Strong Girls, won my first mountain bike race, learned how to walk alone in the dark, developed my love of nature and cultivated some of the most meaningful relationships of my life.
But it is time to say goodbye.
Given the reality that Griff and I will never live in a house we can confidently say is our own and have spent the last decade haunted with the ever present threat we are one lease renewal away from homelessness, we are tapping out. The rising cost of living and the recent relocation of my parents has solidified our resolve to cut the line and set sail.
Griffin is captaining this ship and he is ready to launch.
It is with both total excitement and a little trepidation, that I am bidding you farewell. I will be here for your friendship, your training, massage and yoga needs as well as a sunset beach walk, bike ride or deep conversation until the 16th of August. I will of course, be working right up until we roll onto the boat.
We are moving to the North Shore town of Massachusetts, where I will do exactly what I have been doing for the last 15 years: coach & teach movement as medicine. I’m also very much looking forward to teaching public yoga classes again, being a part of upcoming yoga teacher trainings and riding my bike(s) on many new roads and trails.
I have been living in my little cottage on Old South road for 11 years now and it comes as no shock I've accumulate quite a lot of stuff in that time. Our new apartment will not accommodate all that we had accrued and I hope you will come to our YARD SALE on Sunday, June 29th. I have a few pieces of Mid-Century furniture, records, books, two displacement hull paddle boards and accessories, a cargo bike, bike parts and various pretty little things I’ll be unloading.
We are planning to return next summer, for the high season, and I will continue to serve my wonderful summer clients. In the meantime, I am, as always, available remotely for all the services I offer and look forward to seeing you in person next summer.
I have no doubt this transition is going to be hard. But if I had a superpower, that’s it: doing hard.
Please spend some time with me this summer and obviously - keep in touch!
With all my heart,
Caitlin
