Sunday morning, coffee in hand, I monotonously flipped thought the June 23 MV Times that was sitting on my counter. And, after an emotionally charged week, I started to feel oddly uplifted. While reading the news? What?
This Sunday concluded a week of running on empty after learning of a friend being killed, a father in the hospital, an anniversary of a child’s death, clearly enough to bring anyone’s spirits down.
As I flipped right past the usual political stuff, an article titled “Pets are best,” where Father Nagel did his annual blessing of an array of pets caught my attention. The picture painted a slightly comical scene of what looked to be delightful, organized chaos. It brought a smile to my face.
Thumbing onward through the pictures of the many elementary school graduates fueled my smiles into audible laughter, as I reflected on my own days at the Oak Bluffs Elementary School and the end of the year “field days.”
I could almost feel the sunshine and the sprinkler on the slip ‘n’ slide, as I took in the captions under the new graduates’ pictures. Soon my youngest son will be an eighth grader there, a “proud to be from OB!” moment, for sure.
Then I came across this article on the journey of a young girl who discovered the secret powers of a raw food diet. She is a remarkable young lady who transformed her poor health with just food and is now passing on her newly found tools to anyone wanting to learn about taking care of this vehicle we’ve been given — our bodies.
I thought to my self, wow, we really do get exactly what we need, when we need it. If we are paying attention.
We are all in the driver’s seat of our experiences. What a great reminder to take responsibility for our own health.
My MVRHS graduation caption, displayed behind us at the Tabernacle, was “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul,” from the poem “Invictus.” How appropriate.
The next page brought me to learn about “Om in motion,” a “spinning” class where a dynamic duo combines a balance of mind, body, and spirit approach, paired with the exercise of cycling. What a novel idea, so there is this abundance of positive information and tools at my fingertips, just jumping off the pages of The Times this week; what a drastic and delightful change from my usual Fox 25 news reports.
Lastly, I read about “The Vineyard Warrior Triathlon,” the first on the Vineyard. It made me feel proud of the Island that I call home, to host such a challenging, healthy, and positive event. While I’m in no shape to do a triathlon personally, I realize that we are all warriors of our own life.
We brave through life’s storms, we lift each other up when the load is too much to bear alone, we can brighten each other’s spirits with a simple smile, a kind word, or a good idea.
It’s not about avoiding the storms, It’s about learning to dance in the rain.
That’s what I love about our community, and that’s what I got from this week’s MV Times.
Thanks for being the lift I needed, and thanks for the “good news.”
Kristen Araujo
Edgartown
