Tucked into the dunes of Sunset Beach/Bird Isle, NC, there is a mailbox filled with notebooks where passersby write their thoughts, prayers, secrets and dreams. Some mystery person has maintained the “Kindred Spirit” for years, replacing the notebooks when full. I’ve lived in southeastern North Carolina for four years now, and I had to hear about this phenomena from my friend Majsan, in Sweden. Enchanted by this legend, me, Majsan and a visiting writer we’ll just call “the unibomber” drove 45 minutes from Wilmington and trekked the mile and a half down Sunset Beach on a mild November day to find it was real. The entries ranged from “I’ve been coming here for years” and “My grandma dragged me here…” to “We’re on our honeymoon and just discovered this mailbox” to one dated Nov. 6th, 2008: “Thank you, God, for allowing this country to be open enough to elect a person of color. May he be a strong and compassionate leader.” We left our own, too, of course. Gorgeous day and beautiful idea. Maybe every town should have a “kindred spirit” hidden somewhere?
21
Nov
08
Hey, the blog looks great. Looking more to checking it out and reading more.
best,
kirsten
Kindred Spirts looks like a pretty cool and weird place. Wink Wink!!!
I love this! You’re right, we should have these everywhere. There’s a restaurant in Abingdon that has a table with a drawer in it where people leave notes. Nobody knows how it started but the restaurant maintains it. I’ve never been but saw it on the news a while back. Some notes are random, some silly, some quite serious. I’d love to sit on the sand and read the notebook entries ~
AW, a different sort of “kindred spirit.” Cool.
I am thinking about starting a Kindred Spirit experiment in Indianapolis.
Of course, that kind of defeats the purpose of being the mysterious person behind it, since I just announced it.
Hopefully, though, no one here is reading your blog because that unibomber looks familiar.
XOXO
I am here at Sunset Beach to visit the Kindred Spirit and sprinkle my husbands ashes. He was 56 and died last November. We vacationed at Sunset Beach much of our married life. My daughter, 23, will be with me on what would have been my 30th anniversary on Sept. 29th and we shall fulfill one of his wishes.
Wow, Helen. What a beautiful place for your family to enjoy, forever. Thank you for posting.