I found myself skipping out to the mailbox on a recent bright day. Skipping is not as easy as it used to be, but the drive is long, and I […]
LOCAL LEGENDS
Lights On at First Encounter
Celebrating nearly 50 years of music at a beloved Eastham coffee house that ‘rings with goodness’
EASTHAM — After two and a half years, the lights at the First Encounter Coffee House in Eastham’s Chapel in the Pines will finally be on again — at least […]
FIRST LIGHT
‘Water Please’: A Timeless Harmony
Reflections on the continuity of life here
When Mashpee Wampanoag flautist Ej Mills Brennan told me she would be bringing her boom box along with her flutes to play on Sunday morning at Chapel in the Pines, […]
OP-ED
Finding the Old Peace Sign
A time for Howard Zinn’s ‘guerrilla warfare with the establishment’
Somewhere in this old house where I live, full of many generations of treasures and trash, I still have the CNVA pin that I wore in high school (that’s Nauset […]
GRAMMAR WATCH
Shrink, Shrank, Shrunk
The value of learning and agreeing to the rules
Browsing a New York Times newsletter, I have to stop and re-read several times before confirming, via Google, my sense that the writer has gotten it wrong. The line in […]
OBITUARY
Peter Welker, 79, Brought His Trumpet to Cape Cod
Peter Welker died in Sun City, Ariz. on Jan. 12, 2022 from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and Covid. The West Coast jazz musician, composer, arranger, producer, and sideman, […]
WAR AND COVID
Thinking Clearly About Brain Fog
Person-to-person contact burns off the mist
A friend told me the other day that she doesn’t know if it’s post-Covid brain fog she’s suffering from, or if it’s undiagnosed Lyme disease or some other sinister condition […]
THIS WAS ENOUGH
The Summer and Winter Wetus of Our Predecessors
People of the First Light migrated with the seasons
We are moving deeply into November, the month now recognized as containing the National Day of Mourning for the Native Peoples of this land. Looking wistfully for optimism, or something […]
OP-ED
Jewelweed and Old Ways
On going back to the garden and other places of respite
A friend’s day off earlier this month provided an excuse for the two of us to wander Provincetown, stopping to eat at Bubala’s like we used to do, and watching […]
OP-ED
Alloparenting and Survival
An evolutionary perspective on cooperative caregiving
Surrounded by juveniles, that’s what we are. Whether it’s the ruffled chickadee balancing on the railing or the catbird that can’t stop singing. One of the thrilling things at this […]
OP-ED
A Collective Maternity Leave
Finding the compassion we need in our stories
Sharing stories in a group of 15 friends and strangers on Mother’s Day revealed something to me about how we have been affected in different ways this past year. Let’s […]
OP-ED
Taking Down the Wreath
Oscillating between gratitude and hesitation
“Shouldn’t the wreath come down now?” asks one voice inside my head each time I pull in the drive. “No, it still looks pretty,” says the other voice. The berries […]
OP-ED
Wamsutta Frank James Made Good Trouble
The music teacher who awakened us to real history
One story surfacing this Thanksgiving tells of a search party from the Mayflower, anchored in Provincetown Harbor, raiding a gravesite near Corn Hill in Truro. About 10 bushels of corn […]
OP-ED
The Moment When the Tide Turns
Thoughts on steering the leaking ship of state
EASTHAM — It started as a quick trip down the steps to the pond, with sandwich in hand, before a run into town to fetch bird seed from the Bird […]
OP-ED
Quahogs and Culture Change
Having the courage to ask for help
EASTHAM — The quahog fritters were sensational. In the kitchen of this house I’d known for 68 years and had quietly rattled about in for three and a half months, […]
