The Birchdale Letter April 2026

BIRCHDALE TURNS 115 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR!

Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.” Based on her career and Birchdale’s legacy I have to agree!

I keep turning that large number over. One hundred and fifteen years since a dreamer began communing with this lake, this lodge, these trees. One hundred and fifteen years of people arriving uncertain and leaving changed. One hundred and fifteen years of fires lit and let go out. Thinking about the generations that have walked these paths: those who came during the time of the Rings, those who sat with Helen, those who prayed with the monks, and those who hold memories of this place that predate Birchdale entirely; memories like whispers in the woods of this place. When you stand still you can almost hear what they are saying.

Were it not for aging we would not know beauty or wonder.

As we enter our seventh season at Birchdale, our dog is entering their seventh season too! And yet, most days, it still feels like we just arrived.

THE FUNNY FACE

There is a particular face people make when a milestone birthday approaches. The slight pause before they say the number. Do they lie? Do they dodge? The laugh that comes out a little too fast. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. Fifty. Sixty. Seventy, Eighty, Ninety, and on and on — each one lands differently, and yet the same question seems present for all of them: “how did I get here so fast”?

And yet when we would look up at the tall pines at Birchdale and wonder at their magnificence and all that they have seen, it’s hard to imagine there being anything  – save beauty  – attached to aging. And yet…

Our friends and children and parents all are turning over. Each of us riding this beautiful globe around the sun together. And with each rotation new creatures come to light and older creatures come to rest. The ones who once seemed ageless are navigating the stiffness of mornings, their reconfigured ambitions, the startling arithmetic of how many Aprils might remain. Yet, alongside the shock of it, a tremendous grace comes to call. Offering us an easier relationship with what matters most, an opportunity to perform less, a growing tolerance for sitting still and watching light move across a lake.

And what’s strange to ponder is how this might be a similar process for trees. They – like us –  have to fight so hard at the beginning. They  – like us – have to dig down fast and deep and sprout high as they can, as fast as possible. Because If not, just like us,  they might not make it. So why are we wowed by their magnificent aging and not by our own? And just as noteworthy is how much more we notice old trees than we do the younger ones! Far be it from me to call old trees sexy, but, well, they kind of are! 😄

THE JOY OF IT

Birchdale has always held all of life’s stages at once. The very young and the very old have shared the cabins, the dining table, the fire. A child has learned to paddle for the first time. Someone has returned for their fortieth year, or their sixtieth, each carrying the compound interest of all their previous visits. There is a particular kind of joy that comes from return — from knowing a place so well it becomes part of your interior landscape. And then having the chance to see it anew through wiser eyes. What a gift!

We are grateful to be among those who get to return. To age alongside this place. To watch the same trees we watched last year, slightly taller. To feel ourselves, in our seventh season, simultaneously ancient and brand new.

April, more than any other month, makes this case plainly, because everything is coming back! Everything is beginning again.

Aging is cool but beginning again is even cooler!

So here’s to growing things!: trees and friendships, seasons and dogs, ambitions and gratitude, and this old, beloved place.

 Happy Birthday, Birchdale!

And to everyone else, congrats on your beautiful age!

As always, thanks for reading.

Sarah

PS in honour of the birthday, and the coming of the black flies🪰 we are almost complete on a screened-in porch at one end of the main lodge.

PPS We look forward to offering more chainsaw workshops for men and women!

PPPS Our Sunday Supper was pure delight! Our next Sunday Supper Event, this time Rustic -Styled is coming September 27th. Book Early. They are selling out!

Coming Up Next at Birchdale