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Sandwich Serenity

In New England a soft rainfall allows us time for inner calm and attention to indoor projects and chores. When the sun shines, we think “carpe deum” (seize the day). Yesterday, a scheduled visit to Titcombe Book Shop in Sandwich afforded just that.

I met with Titcombe Book Shop owner, delightful Nancy Titcombe. Her kitchen is through a rear door in the bookshop. So cozy and welcoming, I almost expect the tea kettle to be on a quiet simmer.

It is difficult for me to walk directly through a bookshop without perusing the aisles. I made a mental note to check the book of letters to Jackie Kennedy and Caroline’s new book.

I spread out the additions to Andi’s People whimsical collection of cards and greetings, excited about all that is new. I’m eager to hear Nancy’s news since our last visit and she listens with interest to the news of my children…one now a Sophomore at St. Michael’s in Vermont and two lined up to graduate from high school with their own pending college decisions.

I leave with an order, one more to add to my stack to process.

Sandwich Beach beckons. As I leave the parking lot and head north on Rt. 6A, I take a quick right. My eyes dart to one charming Cape Cod cottage after another. When I reach the waterfront road, I turn left and admire the cottages lined up on the beachfront. A “For Sale” sign in front of one cottage is an invitation to explore the view from the rear.

A sandy path down to the beach is too hard to resist. The sea air is delicious and I fill my soul with its goodness. Not a soul in sight as I gaze in both directions. ‘The magic of the off-season’, I think to myself.

Back in my car I meander in the other direction. A sign catches my attention. I think of my website. It is coming, I am promised. I am waiting patiently.

I can’t wait to share it with you.

Thank you for visiting. Please check back soon.

Andi

Filed Under: musings

Thank you for your patience

Please, please bear with me as we transition from website to wordpress. We are taking exciting big steps and adding more stores

to the list of Andi’s People retailers. And at the same time, we are in the process of uploading many new designs to our new website.

For more information please contact: andi@andispeople.com

I would love to send you a brochure!

Please check back again soon!

Filed Under: andi's news

A Poem for Artists

oboe girl birthday card, personalized birthday card

Play a little on your birthday

Art-Making Poem

Friday, July 29, 2011 by Tara

Your gifts are shy,
and stand behind you,
like a child peeking out
from mommy’s leg.

But you already know that.

You’ve seen it a thousand times
as you tucked and buried them
wondering what was wrong with you.

It wasn’t you. Gifts are bashful.
Most live hidden, and die
in alleys or crumble into broken stones.

What to do?

How to entice them to open the sliding door
and step out?

A mad love for the thing itself
is the best remedy that’s been discovered

a love so wild you are willing to step
into the middle of a circle and dance.
You won’t know if the witnesses around you
are the neighbors
or the world
or just the critics from within

but you’ll go there
for the feeling of your foot sanding the floor,
for the flight in your chest when you jump.

That’s the best prescription:
a kind of foolery, a mad love.

But what if the fear has won out, you ask?

First, sink down to the floor and kiss
your feet.

Fall like someone has just
popped the balloon of you.

Then hug yourself into stillness.
Know that, sweetie, it will be alright.

Next build a fort in your bedroom,
a soft and covered spaced.
Pitch blankets, prop pillows,
bring a firefly inside for light.

Then take it out, whatever it is
your flute or your pen or your clay,
and say your prayer of thank you
for this everything: vessel for your thoughts,
ceaseless companion, adventure-bringer, peace song.

Then take the question, Is it good or not?
and send it to the river to fish.
Let it catch you dinner while you work.

You are not making to be good.
You are making because
it is the great romance of your life.

Then make something. A little thing.
Look at how it loves you
how it woke up the earth to you
and gave you the life-heart back

how the days are growing long again, as in childhood,
as if time is being given back to you
as you learn how your soul wants to fill it.

- Tara Sophia Mohr

Filed Under: musings

A Simple Thank You Note

It's your day to shine!

I have in front of me my black yoga girl card. She has a long, black, wavy pony tail and is wearing purple yoga shorts and a very cute cropped fuscia yoga top. This card is blank inside. Perfect for the thank you note I am writing.

A Yelp comment inspired this design. I received a call from Sandy at Earthly Possessions in Milton, MA. “Someone commented about your cards on Yelp. Look up Earthly Possessions!” The commenter had loved how fun Andi’s People cards are — and that they were ‘multiculti’. So I made a new multiculti card — this yoga girl in a triangle pose with a giant golden star in her hand.

I’m sending this card to my friend, Joe, in upstate New York. Joe is my kind and wonderful long-time friend who offered the use of his cottage on a lake with my daughter — during my birthday week, while my son was attending soccer camp an hour away.

I felt like Anna Morrow Lindbergh, author of one of my favorite books, Gifts From the Sea, which she wrote at a seaside cottage, like me, taking a respite from family and daily routine for the quiet, contemplative surroundings of a little cottage.

The week began following my son’s departure to soccer camp the morning after our arrival. In the stillness of early morning and with the sun hardly above the horizon, I taught a yoga class for wonderful acquaintances in the nearby cottage on a patch of lawn overlooking the lake. So serene and quiet. My choreographed music guiding us gently into the day, and as always, I concluded with a mindful reflection.

Following yoga, back at the cottage, I penned my thoughts. I sketched. I read. I finished Fixing Freddie by Paula Munier, a delightful yoga teacher and friend. My heart laughed and cried with her as she struggled as a single mom with a 12-year-old son and a most unruly little dog. I’m also reading The Gift of An Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison, which at once reminds me of the voice of Anna Morrow Lindbergh as well as May Sarton in Plant Dreaming Deep.

Each afternoon I taught Water Aerobics at the tiny beach in front of the cottages. Kayaking with my daughter along the lake’s shoreline invited more time for contemplation.

The day before we were to return home was my birthday. Plans for dinner teetered when my Vermont best friend had to cancel, but Joe met my daughter and me for a memorable dinner at the Saratoga Springs Horse Races. Emma’s first ever bet (through me) was an exciting, albeit small, victory.

So back to thank you’s…how do you thank someone who opens his cottage to you on a charming lake in the Adirondacks?

Old friends are like aged wine. What is good gets better and more cherished.