We recently visited a friend’s one-room, log cabin. The cabin was built by her great grandfather and has been in her family ever since. Her great grandfather rode out by horse to buy the property, which borders a national park. There is a waterfall out the window, a book of family history on the shelf, a canvas backpack used by relatives on the wall, and a stuffed elk named “Mr. Moose.” The curtains were sewn by her mother and the big rock fireplace was an addition from her grandfather. Everything has a story – even the ugly green plastic breadbox that someone threw away.
Jessie’s cabin has hosted many large family gatherings with cousins all piling into the boathouse. They eat outdoors at a very long picnic table and enjoy campfires and s’mores, music, cards, fishing, sailing, kayaking, waterskiing, climbing trees, exploring, and laughing – “always laughing”. Following family tradition, she spent her honeymoon at the cabin.
“The peaceful feeling that you get when you come up has never changed. The views are the same, although many more cottages have been built around the lake. We always look forward to signs of the seasons. In the spring, we look forward to fiddlehead ferns, lilies of the valley, and lady’s slippers. In the summer, we love the water lilies, the mushrooms, the oak, quaking aspens, birch trees, and the eagles flying overhead. In the fall, we collect acorns, bear berries, and wintergreen for our winter gardens. I, too, walk down the stairs to the lake along the same path as my relatives. It’s my very favorite kind of travel – a familiar kind of travel, where we know when we go that we’ll be surrounded by history, love, sense of place, and a coming-home.” – Jessie
There’s a commitment to this kind of stationarity, so much the same as travel. Both bring education and the joy of nuance. Comparisons are fascinating: Austria versus Seattle, 1938 versus 2012. Yet, a family cabin isn’t quite like travel. You can book a flight to Timbuktu any day of the week but you can’t, on a whim, stay put for a century. You know with every step when you’re leaving on a trip. But, you have no idea when you embark on heritage.
thanks for sharing our story! i LOVE our cottage. it’s a second home – packed with so many awesome memories. And, we’re always making MORE!
Beautiful post. We wish we had such a family place. Up to us to build it some day…