Nancy Slonim Aronie
Writing from the Heart: Stormy weather
It’s pouring, and I’m listening. The sky is getting dark, and I am hoping for some thunder. Maybe even some hail. I open the...
Writing from the Heart: Show or tell
Years ago I read the biography of Armand Hammer, the oil baron. In it he said his mother always said, “Make haste slowly.” I...
Writing from the Heart: Hello, my name is Grief
My sister died on Dec. 2. A week later I was Googling houses and land for sale in Vermont. I emailed a friend and...
Writing from the Heart: Acting like neighbors
Lately I’ve been thinking about the Neighborhood Association meetings my husband and I begrudgingly attended in the early 1970s, when we moved into the...
Writing From the Heart: Valentine’s Day
I recently asked a few close friends who are in long-term marriages what they used to argue about in their younger years. One husband...
Writing From the Heart: As good as new
When I was 18, I had water on the knee, and ended up having a tendon transplant during my freshman year of college. The...
Writing From the Heart: Navigating new pronouns
Last night I was at a Zoom birthday party. In our introductions as we went around “the room” we were asked to identify our...
Writing From the Heart: Realistic resolutions
Every year I make New Year's resolutions, and every year I give them up by Jan. 6. The list has gotten shorter and shorter...
Writing From the Heart: Patience is a virtue
Patience is a virtue, a phrase believed to have originated from the poem “Piers Plowman,” written in 136O by English poet William Langland. Willie...
Writing From the Heart: What does poverty feel like?
I’m not the only one who has been rich and poor and then ended up somewhere in the middle. So my perspective is not...
Writing from the Heart: Writing about life
The renowned poet Marie Howe wrote a gorgeous poem titled “What the Living Do.” In it she cites all the ordinary, everyday things that...
Writing from the Heart: Spaghetti zen
Whenever anyone asks me what my favorite food is, my answer has, over the decades, consistently been spaghetti. I don’t know when they started...
Writing from the Heart: Sisters
Last week my sister said, “I’m going to die in 21 days.” If someone tells you they will be dying in three weeks, they’re...
Writing from the Heart: Lessons learned
The day after George Flloyd was murdered by cops, I drove by Beetlebunng Corner and saw my friend, Dana Nunes, standing holding a sign...
Writing from the Heart: To Jeff Bezos
Dear Jeff (Bezos):
Not sure why I felt the need to say your last name. You certainly must know mine.
Loved my last order of those...
Domestic Disturbances: Me and my garden
Everyone knows about the early panic buying at the beginning of COVID-19: the toilet paper, the yeast, the flour, the butter, but I just...
Writing from the Heart: Finding a sliver of joy
It’s in the middle of the Black Lives Matter protests and COVID-19. I’m trying to get my heart reopened. I turn on NPR, and...
Bedside Table: Nancy Slonim Aronie
This is not my bedside table because it is too cold for us to read in bed. But it’s where the books and magazines...
Chilmark: The return of nature
This is the breathtaking season on the Vineyard. Not the normal breathe-in, breathe-out kind of breath, but the gasp that knows something magical is...
Chilmark: Congratulations Jennifer LoRusso and Joel Glickman
Valerie has given me the honor of writing this week’s and next week’s columns. So bear with me, please.
When people ask for a description...