Cottaging
I was speaking with someone last week who grew up in California. He has been living in Toronto for many years now but the idea of “cottaging” is still a foreign concept to him.
Cottaging | it’s in our DNA
Our conversation started me thinking about my cottage and what it means to me. For starters, calling it mine would be a false statement. The cottage I go to, and have gone to every summer since I was conceived, has been in my family for five generations. An Urquhart tradition since 1888, and it belongs collectively to every member of our tribe, living and not.
Each person has made their own personal mark on the land and buildings that make up this spiritual place. The vintage structures and the towering old maples that surround hold every moment in their confidence. Every fear, every laugh, every argument, every heartache, every voice lingers here; as does the energy of the people they belong and belonged to.
All who pass through this place related or not, are embraced by the warm hangover of ancestral presence. This is not by chance. The roots have been buried deep in the soil here so that each generation can participate joyfully in their continued growth.
I am fortunate to be one who gets to dance with the legacy. With any luck I will leave my mark as well.
Is it any wonder why someone from California can’t understand the significance of the Ontario cottage? I can barely grasp it myself.
How is it that a patch of land can foster such defining importance?
Caird Urquhart is Founder and President of Newroad Coaching, a boutique coaching firm providing one-on-one personal and business coaching services and also author of 30 Ways To Better Days: How to Rally After You’ve Been Dumped. Find Newroad Coaching on their blog and on Twitter and YouTube.