I know that when I enter Provincetown’s West End salt marsh softly, without shoes, I feel certain that I am welcomed by something alive, something that wants to live. I […]
LETTER FROM ACROSS THE POND
The Inherent Worth of Being
An encounter with an insect leads to a revelation
What was I reading that day outside at the café that made me so quiet inside myself? I cannot recall, but I remember the feeling of stillness and receptivity, as […]
LETTER FROM ACROSS THE POND
The Loss of Enchantment
The pink river dolphins don’t dance anymore
I think I might have been around 16 years old, so my cultural indoctrination was well underway. For years, I had been a devotee of Jacques Cousteau and his beautiful […]
LETTER FROM ACROSS THE POND
The Menstrual Minstrel Visits Scotland
Jay Critchley and Lady Tampon Liberty ask, ‘Have we lost our desire for eternity?’
Scotland was the first country in the world to mandate the free provision of period products, and so it was a most fitting place for the second annual conference of […]
LETTER FROM ACROSS THE POND
Restoring the In-Betweens
In defense of the rhythmic realms where opposites meet
So many things to love in the Book of Genesis; so many things to take exception to. Here’s one of each. Love: the image of the world as being made, […]
LETTER FROM ACROSS THE POND
The Nearness of Swans
Observing the Royals, sort of
“He that steals the Eggs of Swans out of their nests, shall be imprisoned a Year & a Day, and fined at the King’s Pleasure.” —English Common Law It must […]
LETTER FROM ACROSS THE POND
The Midwinter Promise of Imbolc
Trusting the yet to be seen
New Year in Scotland, known as Hogmanay, arguably from Old French, Norse, and/or Goidelic, is a very big deal. Several nights of partying, fireworks, the singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” […]
LETTER FROM ACROSS THE POND
The Blessing of the Shearwaters
Late on a fall day, an unpredictable wonder of the sea is revealed
In Edinburgh, the cherry trees have lost their leaves. Golden and carnelian-colored, they carpet the grass and fill the gutters like heaps of slender sunset fish. We will watch the […]
LETTER FROM ACROSS THE POND
An Ode to Not Knowing
Try to remember what it was like to not have every answer close at hand
It is a familiar enough occurrence in my line of work: a client admits to being lost, without direction, not knowing where to go or what to do. It is […]
LETTER FROM ACROSS THE POND
Animal Magic in the Marsh
A shamanic excursion to land’s end
Because she possesses a kind of shamanic animal magic, when Rina said she wanted to go for a bike ride with me, I let her lead the way. At the […]
ENVIRONMENT
Standstill on the Breakwater as West End Moors Decline
Army Corps has been waiting for a year for go-ahead on new study
PROVINCETOWN — Science and government tend to be slow-moving, but the purple marsh crab moves fast, gobbling up the spartina grass of the West End Moors. Spartina grass holds the […]
URGENT CARE
Provincetown’s Moors Are Dying
Action is needed as purple crabs make the West End marsh disappear
As a longtime visitor to Provincetown, I have been nourished in many ways by its natural and cultural beauty, but nothing here has touched me as deeply as the salt […]
