Paola Merrill - The Cottage Fairy Companion: A Cottagecore Guide to Slow Living, Connecting to Nature, and Becoming Enchanted Again (Mindful living, Home Design for Cottages)

Introduction

A Bit About Me

I came to the valley in June. It was a quiet place, nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

The balsamroot had recently gone to seed, and the hillsides were fading from a rich green to the soft browns and yellows of a full summer. Id come to know the seasons quite well over the next several years. Much of it would be a thorough study conducted through the bedroom window of my cottage, where I would sit at my desk and work nearly every day. As I painted or wrote, my eyes regularly checked the view, seeking the curious little moments that revealed some intimate detail about the ever-changing landscape.

From that window, I would see my first moose cow, leading her trembling newborn to the lakeside a half miles trek down the road. Six months later, the frigid clear skies on a winters night, dappled with the brightest clusters of stars I had ever seen. Yet the most rewarding moment by far would be spying a diminutive bluebell growing by my garden fence. It peeped through the chilled ground, a harbinger of spring when my world seemed so still and unrelenti ngly cold.

My cottage and I share an intimacy likened to that of two old friends, though we havent known each other for long. When I first passed the thresholdand promptly tripped on a jutting wood plankI was a nascent adult, overwhelmed by a life spent working and studying toward a goal that Id held onto so tightly I couldnt see what it wa s anymore.

I had long discovered my life was waning, a little smaller and less vibrant each day. I didnt know what to do, so I had applied for a position teaching at a preschool in a small rural town. I hoped the increase in salary and vicinity to my family would give me the strength to make progress in a life that seemed so incredibly mundane that it had permeated something deep within, leaving me absolutely uninterested in the world.

The cottage needed repairs and a fresh coat of paint. It took months to recover it to a livable state. Looking back, the process was far more beneficial to me than the cottage itself. To take so much delicate care in fixing something, decorating it, and starting a little garden. To give time and love, even when you didnt know you had any lef t to give.

I began to film videos about my process of making a house a home, sharing both moments of bliss and hardship while living in the valley. I started with my iPhone before learning to use a proper camera. I posted the videos on YouTube and soon found similar souls that enjoyed my artistic take on rural life and love of storytelling. They supported the romantic nature of my short films. The videos were a way for us to stop, breathe, and get lost in dreamy rituals of tea drinking and nature walks and baking bread. They were a form of therapy for me, a reminder to focus on the beautiful things in my life and keep the rain clouds at bay. Those videos have changed my life and inspired m y writing.

On my YouTube channel, I have shared how I seek out the wonder in the present. Also, the lessons I try and often fail to apply to my beautiful, ordinary, everyday life. The rhythms of slowness and busyness, resilience and hardship, patience, and gentle moments. The greatest thing that my cottage experience offered me was that I had never actually needed it. If one day I move again, if my life takes me back to my old city apartment, little will change. I truly believe that a beautiful life can only be cultivated through time and effort. It isnt so much dependent on where you live but how . The hardest lesson I have ever learned is that happiness isnt a location.

For so many years, I dreamed and planned and dreamed some more of my little imaginary cottage in the woods, far away from stress, worry, and unhappiness. But, as far as I know, things just dont work that way. In my naivety, I couldnt grasp that you follow yourself everywhere: your problems and fears and burdens. If there is only one message that I wish to convey in this book, its that you are your home. Nothing else will feel right until you do. A dream achieved will quickly sour if you are not your best friend. My cottage never made me happy, and to this day, I am still learning how to b e content.

I hope this booka collection of prose, poetry, recipes, and craftswill inspire you to look at your life more closely and notice the magic that has always been there. Those unassuming moments overlooked by many, patiently waiting to be red iscovered.