On My Way: Cross-Island hike
An electrical current coursed through the cool air.
I leaned against a tree and stretched my legs. Folks congregated outside the Trustees building. We had looked forward to the day. Even a conversation about the...
A Beacon: Keeping the light
It was just another Monday at the clubhouse — Patriot’s Day, actually. We try to hit the ground running Mondays, to develop some extra momentum to carry us through the week. We’d gotten lunch...
Dukes County Health Council: Working for your health
In 1968, a piece appeared in the Reader's Digest introducing the phrase "Getting old ain't for sissies," bringing humor to an aging population’s aching joints and hardening arteries. Later, comedian Betty White refined it...
On My Way: Poking around the pilings
I paddled out from the shore. A seagull swooped down in front me. I heard the wash in the water. I had made the right decision.
A few days earlier I had the idea of...
A Beacon: Day by day
Not every day is going to be a winner. Mental illness is practically defined by its unpredictability. A person’s symptoms can follow a strict schedule for years, and then change without warning. Tried-and-true meds...
Slow and steady can win the race
We’re approaching a season that bodes many things: our busiest time of year, an exponential increase in the Island population, cookouts, hitting the beach … and weddings.
Having been a certified personal trainer (“been” being...
Nonprofit Notebook: Felix Neck
A few years ago, I tried to organize a beach cleanup with my sister Erin and her fellow VIP (Vineyard Independence Partnership) members. For those who don’t know, Martha’s Vineyard’s VIP program is a...
My sole journey
A dozen years ago Mitzi Pratt, a bookbinder in Aquinnah, suggested a foot class in NYC at Revolution in Motion. I went, and then tried to go whenever I had time if I was...
On My Way: The climb
The Battell trail was a climb from the start. Right away I was working. I was planting my poles and making steps. My blood was pumping. The trail wasted no time weaving upward. I...
Dukes County Health Council: Working for your health
In 1787, Benjamin Franklin wrote the French intellectual Jean-Baptiste Leroy about his hopes for the longevity of the newly drafted Constitution of the United States, and noted, “But in this world nothing can be...
Taking an inward journey: Part 3
“I know so many people who think they can do it alone
They isolate their heads and stay in their safety zones
Now what can you tell them
And what can you say that won't make them...
Dukes County Health Council: Working for your health
It may surprise you that Martha’s Vineyard is considered a “level two rural community,” an important distinction shared with only 20 percent of the nation. How can our bustling community be considered “rural” when...
A Beacon: ‘Let us be your allies’
For much of my life, I was resigned to total disability. It’s a common enough story in mental illness the world over. Medication would work, until it wouldn’t, or it would feebly work. Or...
On My Way: Looking for the cut
The sound of the surf, the chill in the air, the blue sky and the yellow sun, the tan beach and the Atlantic Ocean were reasons enough.
I drove to the left fork of South...
Taking an inward journey: part two
“Watch out now, Take care, beware the thoughts that linger, Winding up inside your head, The hopelessness around you, In the dead of night…Beware of sadness”
(From George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness”)
When last we left...
Dukes County Health Council: Working for your health
In recent years, the topic of mindfulness has become prominent in both our conversations and aspirations as a path to improve the quality of our lives. Many of us make conscious efforts to practice...
On My Way: The Ocean View
South Road. Middle Road. North Road. Fulling Mill Brook. Peaked Hill. And just for the heck of the double hat trick: Ocean View Farm.
The first time I did this hike — with my trusty...
A Beacon: You are not alone
Daybreak Clubhouse. I have heard many honest guesses as to what it actually is. A daycare is the most popular guess. A ritzy social club, that’s one of my favorites. The list goes on,...
Taking an inward journey: part one
“Turn off your mind, relax, and float down stream…”
John Lennon borrowed, modified, and beautified these words from Timothy Leary’s 1964 book “The Psychedelic Experience” for his song “Tomorrow Never Knows,” which appeared as the...
Dukes County Health Council: Working for your health
It’s human nature to spend more time examining our failures than celebrating our victories; to complain about the inconvenient steps needed to get a COVID booster, for example, rather than the fact we received...