Kathy and I gathered with family in Sarasota, Fla. for Thanksgiving at the home of my daughter Caroline and son Brian. We were joined over the weekend with dear Vineyard friends Barbara and Corrine Edelin, Cindy Carter, Tina and Erin Coombs (family ), Don and Naiema Frieson, Janet Taylor and more.

The holiday season is both a time of coming together with friends as well as family. Part of the time spent includes a reflection of one’s life, one’s surroundings and the general state of affairs.

In between overflowing food, beverages, football, cigars, golf, Black Friday shopping, etc. we cogitate about the joy and abundance of life that we have. At the same time we are mindful that everyone on the Island, in our country and in the world does not enjoy our bounty. And those of us who can traverse from our Vineyard cottages to a second home elsewhere know that by definition we are truly blessed.

November of 2024 was very different than last year and the year before because this month brought national elections as well as Thanksgiving parades. Many feel grateful, happy and fortunate but at the same time many feel very uncertain. Uncertainty, pending change, a new national focus is palpable on the tongues and minds of many, unspoken for some but nakedly visible nevertheless.

But in addition to my faith, my uncertainty is buoyed by the irreplaceable and immovable institutions, people and unbreakable spirit of our beloved Martha’s Vineyard. The Flying Horses, the PA Club, the Cottagers, Union Chapel, the Tabernacle, Finding Your Roots, Ocean Park, yoga and the Polar Bears at Inkwell Beach, Featherstone, the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury, Noman’s, Juneteenth, Linda Jeans, Nelson’s (now Michael’s), the Preservation Trust, Illumination Night and the Fireworks, the Oak Bluffs Library, the African American History Trail, the Vineyard Museum, our art galleries, the Vineyard Playhouse, the Strand Theatre and so much more.

We are special when we step off the boat and share this wonderful life on Martha’s Vineyard, and no matter what comes and what goes. we will be who we are.

I leave you with a few stanzas of A Thanksgiving Poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar

The sun hath shed its kindly light
Our harvesting is gladly o’er
Our fields have felt no killing blight
Our bins are filled with goodly store

From pestilence, fire, flood and sword
We have been spared by thy decree
And now with humble hearts, O Lord
We come to pay our thanks to thee

We feel that had our merits been
The measure of thy gifts to us,
We erring children, born of sin,
Might not now be rejoicing thus.

No deed of our hath brought us grace;
When thou were nigh our sight was dull,
We hid in trembling from thy face,
But thou, O God, wert merciful.

Thy mighty hand o’er all the land
Hath still been open to bestow
Those blessings which our wants demand
From heaven, whence all blessings flow.

Long time Vineyard visitor Tony Moore of Philadelphia passed during Thanksgiving weekend. Prayers to his wife Henri, their daughters and family.

Paradise on earth is living the Vineyard experience. Enjoy it as life is fleeting.

Rest in Peace Randall Edward Taylor.