January is beautiful, the sunlight warm and coming at a gentle slant — except when you are driving East early in the morning or West in the evening.
The news and video of another death, this time at the hands of an ICE agent, ripped through my grief for the friends and families of islanders lost the week before.
Domestic violence behind closed doors is real. Emotional cruelty and violence I thought we all agreed are abhorrent are perpetrated in public, caught on video and continuously streaming.
Hateful actions — cruelty, intimidation, and violence unchecked — destroy individuals, families, and communities. And connections strengthen them.
Speaking up. Saying hard things instead of keeping silent. Helping someone make a hard phone call. Or stepping in with an offer to take a walk and listen with a promise to keep the confidence, when you notice something is off, can be lifesaving.
A friend recently reminded me of the saying, “When offered a tart, take it.” Hearing it made me laugh, and feel glad we’ve come so far, because my father would say this with the double meaning of a terrible term for a woman, and women can turn that away and accept with pleasure when lovely things are offered to us.
Thank you to Linda Ferrini for giving me her space at a gathering of women for a singing bowl sound bath by Priscilla Warner. It was a beautiful gathering hosted by the inimitable Spring Sheldon of S&S Kitchen. I encourage you to seek out whatever she offers. She described this as “about tuning in with ourselves and each other, building support and amplifying love.” It certainly delivered.
We are lucky to have beautiful gathering places like Katie and Marshall Carroll’s Menemsha Texaco, our libraries, Pathways, Native Earth Teaching Farm, and Stillpoint, that promote community listening and speaking.
Native Earth Teaching Farm is open Sunday afternoons, 2 to 4 pm, and by appointment.
The Chilmark library offers Coffee and Conversation Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m. to noon. Thursdays, Community Knitting Circle, 1 to 3 pm.
On Saturday mornings in January, Drawing Nature, 10:30 to noon. Meet Penny Weinstein, Jan. 17, 3 to 4:30 pm, at a reception for her exhibition of her paintings. She writes, “Because I live in one of the farthest corners of the island, I am often in a car, trying not to be distracted by the most beautiful views — maybe just shadows on a sunny road, but often it’s a sweeping landscape with water in the distance. In ‘Vineyard Byways’ I am painting the paths and roadways that connect us on this special Island.” Her exhibit is on display through Jan. 31.
Bring your mending or sewing project to our Slow Stitching Circle at Pathways, Thursdays, 2 to 4 pm.
On Friday, Jan. 16, 7 to 9 pm, Pathways presents father and son Brian and Niden Weilan Mark Cohen playing Celtic music on fiddle, guitars, hammered dulcimer, and mandolins. Missis Biskis, with Ellen Biskis, Kestutis Biskis, Tauras Biskis, and Bruce Millard, will play music from Hank to Hendrix, Loretta to Lucinda, and all the stops along the Americana Highway.
