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Past life in Maine?

ssake

ssake

Senior Registered
I was musing about my long-time feeling that I've had a lifetime on the coast of Maine, and I was thinking, I know it involved boats, that I had a boat I was very attached to. I thought, maybe I can play around on the internet and find something. And it came to my mind to search on "skiffs", and I was thinking, "Why do I think they call those little boats "skiffs"?" Anyway, I searched on "Maine" and "skiffs", and I quickly found a boatbuilder's website, and this is indeed the type of boat I feel such nostalgia for.

I wish I could remember more, but I'm quite sure there's a real past-life there. My sense is that I was pretty-much of a loner and very involved with and attached to this boat. But I think maybe there was an unrequited love, one that, had I--or she--lived long enough, I wouldn't have idealized so much (because, I think it wasn't for her what it was for me in my mind, but that was never confirmed for me). That's all I can get and even that's very vague.

But if I was rich I'd buy one of those boats in a heartbeat.
Steve S.
 
Hi Steve, I am living in Maine right now (after moving back here to my hometown, right on the coast.) If you have any other impressions or memories, maybe I can help you.

It is not uncommon to have drownings here, especially in years gone by, as so many people earn their living from the ocean and it can be rough out there...especially if you're in a skiff! I am not saying that is how you may have died...

Well, I can also tell you that growing up I had a skiff and enjoyed being out on the water very much...once you experience this it is bound to stay with you!

Take care and good luck with your musings, Vicki
 
Thanks...I've had this feeling about those boats, and the Maine coast with the big rocks, and the houses, for as long as I can remember, which is one reason I trust it as a real past life. I had a kind of intuitive "aha" feeling about the unrequited love situation, and how it related to some present-life similar situations, like it was revealed to me so I could get past it. I don't have any more about it. However, I feel I've been involved in writing, and probably involved with prominent writers at some point. When searching on the internet for "skiff", the thing that kept coming up was a little Inn called the "Skiff House for Poets" or something like that, established in honor of the poets of the region, and some prominent ones were named. Somehow I'm tied in there, and I may be mixing up lifetimes, but I have this lone fisherman who nonetheless was acquainted with the writers of the period. That makes sense, because in this life I'm an artist with photography and video, and yet for my livelihood I'm mostly doing fairly unglamorous types of work. And I am also in this life acquainted with some prominent people (in mystical and reincarnation studies).

I do feel that I really loved this boat almost like it was a companion, beyond what you'd ordinarily feel about inanimate objects or modes of conveyance--like the way some people personalize an old car, only maybe more so. I feel it every time I see a little wooden model of one.

But, too much nostalgia and attachment isn't good. It does get more real as I write about it...
Steve S.
 
Hi SS

I, too, am a sailor by nature. The first time I set foot on a sailboat, I had this overwhelming feeling of 'home at last'. Later, when I was able to sail out of sight of land, I settled into a peaceful rhythm that, in my experience, is unachievable on land.

My boat and I have many, many miles on us now, and the purest joy I have ever found is sailing alone day after day, watching the boat take care of us. I have seen killer whales play, albatrosses fly all afternoon without so much as a single flap of their wings, and dolphins that came close enough to touch. I've seen 70 knot winds and seas so calm they looked like they were covered with oil.

I'll retire from active business in a few more years and go back to sea to stay. But for me, it's the sea - not the islands and ports and the people, but the sea. And maybe it will be for you.
Find the money somewhere, SS, and buy a boat.


Joe
 
Hi, my mom is from Maine. It's really beautiful there. I can smell the sea salt now and hear the thunderholes howl!

Just had to say that:-) I have always been fascinated about why certain people are drawn to certain things. We all have them, I'm sure. That's why my dad used to love to shut himself up in the garage and work on his '55 Chevy, breathing in the oily fumes as if they were fresh breezes. Or people who have fascinations with certain countries, states, rare hobbies.

I have my own things, too. I have always loved books and libraries, but I remember when I first entered a huge collegiate library, my heart just skipped a beat and I felt "at home" there. I LOVED the library, the whole university, actually, but especially the giant stacks of research publications, the papers written on any topic you could think of. The whole thing felt so full of potential, with the library smell, the stacks of books. I later got a job and worked in the interlibrary loan department for my last two years of my undergraduate years.

I studied English, which I have always felt was something very "me, this is what I do!" from young childhood on, but there is something also special to me about science, enough that I wonder if I didn't miss my calling? As a child, I religiously watched that program 3-2-1 Contact, did experiments, etc. Although I like my Literature just as any good writer should, I still gravitate to the Scientific Americans almost as much as I do a good novel.

It just feels familiar, although in THIS life anyway, I daydreamed and wrote poetry right through my advanced math classes and therefore, never pursued any science degrees. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do in this life--I also felt very real and alive when I first started reading and it occurred to me that I, too, could write Go Dog Go, just give me a pencil!--but I can't help but wonder if I didn't have a scientific/research career in another life.

There are others too, but that's my warm fuzzy feelings. I have darker ones as well, but we'll leave it at that. :-)

Kim
 
I think I had an earlier life on the sea, on the big ships, too. It came to me listening to a traditional tune played on hammered dulcimer and guitar. I can't say for sure it's a past-life memory or imagination, but while listening to the song I had a flash of hanging out over the bow of the ship somehow while it was running fast, like I was hanging off the bowsprint or something. Is that possible, did sailors ever do that? Anyway, that life feels like a good one, like it was fun and carefree. I don't get a sense of all the bad things you read about. As though, contrary to many of my other lives, this one was kind of a vacation without a lot of worries.

As for buying a boat--sigh, I'm quite poor and I live landlocked in Atlanta. There's a lake here called Lanier where people drive power boats around in a circle, because there's not enough lake to keep driving them straight...pretty sad. I hope someday I'll live near the ocean again, but it's not to be now.
Steve S.
 
Ahh Maine! The land of my ancestors. A little digging revealed that my original North American ancestor arrived in the Casco Bay area (Portland) in 1632. He was later wiped out by indians but not before (luckily for me) he had a son to carry on the line.
Returning to Maine is always like going home to me even though I've never lived there.
Naturally I've read a bit on the region and it's obvious early on that roads were of secondary importance there since everyone traveled by water and almost everybody learned to sail early in life. The coast of Maine is about 5,000 miles long (I swear) if you stretched it out. To go around some bays would've taken days by land but to sail across might only take a couple of hours or less. Early "Mainiacs" would have held their boats (including skiffs) in high regard and loved, named and depended on them everyday. The relationship between an early resident of Maine and his skiff would have been the same as between a cowboy and his horse. Your description of your feeling makes it seem likely that you might indeed have had a life there. Perhaps as a boy you learned to sail in a skiff that you loved and later you shipped out to travel the world on stout Maine ships. Most young men of Maine did just that. To get a feel for the times, you might try reading a little of Sarah Orne Jewett's work. She lived among the natives of early Maine and wrote many fine stories about them. Here's a link to get you started:
http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Sarah_Orne_Jewett/The_Country_of_the_Point ed_Firs/Green_Island_p1.html

[This message has been edited by peterb (edited 01-29-2003).]

[This message has been edited by peterb (edited 01-29-2003).]
 
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