Commentaries

A warm breeze, a gathering of friends, and the clanging of pots and pans are welcoming signs of the season for commentator and writer Marcene Marcoux.

Sunday May 12 is Mother's Day, and writer Nancy Aronie has been mulling over the legacy that a mother might leave her children.  Nancy is the author of Writing from the Heart, and teaches the Chilmark Writing Workshop.

Usually we talk about people trying to break habits.  Commentator Nancy Aronie of Martha’s Vineyard is trying to develop one.  Nancy teaches the Chilmark Writing Workshop, and is the author of Writing from the Heart.

Tim Lineaweaver, a psychotherapist from Woods Hole, reflects on a painful personal history, and what it takes to confront and overcome violence. As a psychotherapist, Tim works with clients suffering from addictions and trauma. Note: the content of this essay is intense - addressing subjects of a sensitive nature. 

This essay was edited by Viki Merrick, and produced by Atlantic Public Media, our production partners here  in Woods Hole. 

Lucy Vincent Beach on Martha's Vineyard is renowned for its beauty. A series of winter storms reshaped the already shapely hideaway known as "the Goddess." Shelley Christiansen recently stepped out on the sand to survey the changes and appreciate the beauty that endures.   

Letters on paper possess a special power: by them we fall in love, by them we mark the passage of time. Now they are becoming increasingly rare. Nancy Aronie of Martha's Vineyard laments the loss of sending and receiving letters.

Audio posted above.

Nancy is the author of "Writing from the Heart" which will be released as an Ebook this May.  She teaches The Chilmark Writing Workshop.Her essay was edited by Viki Merrick, of Atlantic Public Media.

It's amazing how new glasses can help clarify everything in your life -- even those things you can't see.   Martha's Vineyard writer Nancy Aronie had this moment of clarity.

Like many Martha's Vineyard residents, writer Shelley Christiansen enjoys the island's laidback atmosphere.  But it can bring about the unexpected. In this essay she recounts the mystery of a burglar who didn't burgle. 

Audio posted above

Dr. Natalie Mariano works as physician at the Veteran Affairs Primary Care Center in Hyannis. She wrote this essay once the electricity returned after the recent blizzard.

When Shelley Christiansen came upon a house on fire in Oak Bluffs at night, the desolation of the scene, and of County Road, seemed remarkable - until she remembered that it was Winter School Break, a time of year when the island really does seem as empty as the summer people imagine when they ask, "How quiet does the island get in winter?"