When circumstances seem at sixes and sevens, one can sink one’s hands in a dog’s coat of fur or a cat’s muscularity and feel grounded.

The first boat I worked on was a fishing vessel out of Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod called the Jimmy Boy.

For the first time in my life, I am unemployed during the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.

Vineyard Haven, where I live, isn’t one of those places that looks extremely vulnerable to the wrath of a giant storm or the open sea.

On the first day of school, everyone nurses a secret hope that this will be the best year ever, that learning will be effortless and fun, and so on.