The challenge August poses on the Vineyard revolves around the question of contentment. “Joy of life,” the American farmer-philosopher David Grayson wrote, “seems to me to arise from a sense of being where one belongs … of being foursquare with the life we have chosen.”

Each one of us has, in one sense or another, chosen this piece of land in the sea that lies beyond the land. Making peace with that choice, especially in this sometimes hectic month of contradictions, involves connecting deeply with the things that drew us to the Vineyard in the first place.

Now as the days grow visibly shorter and as the climactic events of summer rush past — the road race, Illumination Night, the fireworks and the fair — our great challenge is to slow down even in this sprint to summer’s finish, to savor this fleeting season’s sweetness and try to make it last.