Embrace the Audacity

Her name was Millicent Dexter, and I have become a little obsessed with her.

I don’t actually know what Millicent was thinking when she made some of her choices. But I like to wonder.

She added a tower to Gordon Hall that didn’t exactly match the rest of the house.

There was also, apparently, a rather extravagant privy.

And then there was the cottage.

After her husband died, Millicent went looking for shorefront property in Madison, Connecticut, where she could build a summer home. At the time, the shoreline was largely viewed as a place for fishing, shipbuilding and other commercial uses.

Millicent saw something different.

She saw sea breezes and beautiful scenery.

In 1867, she built a cottage there that stood alone on the beach for 14 years. Eventually, other people followed, building their own cottages and creating what became Madison’s summer colony. The historical account actually calls Millicent a trend setter.

I love that.

We have no way of knowing whether Millicent worried about what other people thought of her tower, her extravagant privy or her cottage on the beach.

But I like to imagine that at some point she simply trusted what she wanted and what she saw.

So that’s the energy I’m taking into next week.

Trust your instincts.

See something other people don’t see yet.

And remember that everything you add to your life doesn’t have to match what was already there.

Sometimes you’re allowed to change the architecture.

Who is with me?

Build the tower anyway.