LETTER FROM THE EDITOR – July 2013
By Heidi Kirn | Art Director, Maine Home+Design | Photography Jeffrey R. Roberts

The staff of Maine Media Collective recently took, what we call, a day of reflection. There is something magical that happens when you break your daily routine, leave your desk, and turn off your computer. We gathered in the living room at our publisher Kevin Thomas’s house on a perfectly foggy Maine morning.

Stories were shared from couches over coffee of what brought each of us to Maine and to Maine Media Collective and what keeps us here. It was amazing to hear each intimate journey, the choices and risks we have made along the way to get here. The many turns taken at crossroads that could have changed our courses. Each story was so different but all carried a common thread: a love for this special state and the people who make it so. 

By 2PM we parted, the morning fog had burned off, and it had turned into a gloriously sunny day. I took the back roads home and marveled at the sun reflecting off of the green fields with horses grazing in them. I reflected on my own winding journey of moving my family from the New York City suburbs back to Maine four years ago.

I grew up in the beautiful mountains of western Maine. When I left Maine to explore other places and cities I had no idea how deeply it would remain part of my soul. My paintings while living in Hartford, Boston, and New York City developed subconsciously into large abstract landscapes of the countryside and expansive space of my youth. I hadn’t realized until then how much effect the physical space had on me. But it isn’t only the beauty here that makes it so magical. It is the people who have chosen to live here and the lives they are living here.

Our cover line “Here at Last” ties into so many of the stories my colleagues shared that day. Whether you were born here or moved from away, whether you chose to come or chose to stay, everyone seems to share a common love for the place, people, and the things that make Maine so special.