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, […]
BOOK REVIEW
A Reader’s Journey Into ‘A Long Petal of the Sea’
Isabel Allende’s historical novel resonates with current crises
With so much reading time between gardening days and walks to the bay in my privileged Eastham world, I was fortunate to have picked up Isabel Allende’s newest work of […]
OP-ED
Hope in the Time of Covid-19
With a dysfunctional state, can we ‘feel to be a cog in something turning’?
EASTHAM — My grandfather was a Congregational minister. I never met him. He died of pneumonia in the 1920s. Two stories I heard growing up about Robert Hillis Goldsmith: in […]