The leaves are bursting, and you can see the changes on the main roads. Cooler spots have branches tinged with light green, and the warmer spots are now tunnels enclosed by large, dark green leaves, making high beams important at night.
Purple and pink wisteria, flowing, small, white-blossomed spirea, rhododendrons and azaleas are blazing like fabulous Menemsha sunsets in swaths of red, purple, peach, orange, white, and pink. They like the acidic soil, but the soil is so dry I tote heavy buckets of water and pause, drinking in the way the light shimmers on the dark green leaves and lightens the pastel petals and breath.
The forest is changing, and many of the beech trees that are so plentiful have started to succumb to the nematode that prevents their leaves from growing. I hug them. It is hard to bear witness to their struggle, and impossible to walk on without breathing in gratitude for their beauty and large trunks and roots that firmly held their ground through storms. Light filters through where their leaves once provided deep shade, hitting blueberry bushes that were longing for more sun.
Congratulations to Westley Wlodyka, who graduates from Vermont Academy/Mount Snow Academy on May 24. His time at V.A. allowed him to travel with the school’s snowboard team to Austria and Park City in Utah, and to Copper Mountain in Colorado to participate in the Nationals. He received the Coaches’ Award, and was on the dean’s list. He plans on attending the University of Tampa in January. Congratulations to his parents, Jen and Lev, and thanks to his proud grandmother, Barbara Jamgochian, for sending the news.
This weekend, all are invited to share stories and honor Frankie Rodenbough’s beautiful and tragically short life on Saturday, May 24, from 1 to 4 pm, at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Hall, located at 35 Panhandle Road, West Tisbury.
Sunday, May 25, at 9 am in the Menemsha parking lot, the Chilmark Church holds its beloved annual Blessing of the Fleet. We gather on the dock, read aloud the names of all the working, leisure, and Coast Guard boats that call Menemsha their home port, and pray for a productive season and safe passage.
It is a time when we gather with reverence, hope, and remembrance. I will bring a basket of blossoms for us to scatter along with our prayers.
“What will survive of us is love.” –Phillip Larkin
If you have a moment, I highly recommend Claire Keegan’s short, awardwinning, and resonant book, “Small Things Like These.” In it she tells the story of a man’s later life, reckoning with culture, community, and complicity.
Four heroic MVRHS high school seniors — Vivian Baxter and Bella Levy, founders of Stepping Up; Arianna Edelman of 100+ Teens Who Care; and Annabelle Mettell of Break the Silence — invite us to show up at the Seawall Stand on Saturday, May 31, at 11 am on Eastville Beach on Beach Road, Oak Bluffs (rain date is June 1). The intent is to break the silence, shame, and stigma attached to addiction. The gathering will create a human chain along the seawall, where we “show that our community stands together — not just in grief, but in hope, love, and action,” Mettell notes. We are encouraged to wear purple, a sign symbolizing addiction awareness and recovery support, and make a sign of support. I’m inspired by Stepping Up’s slogan, “One foot in front of the other,” because recovery, healing, and change begin with small, steady steps, and healing is a journey no one has to make alone.
If you have any Chilmark Town Column suggestions, email Claire Ganz, cganz@live.com.
