01/15/2025
Nancy's most recent Blog: "Coming Home"
January- The Quiet Time of Beauty
1/14/25
Three decades ago, when my son was five, we bought a piece of land in the country, on the cranberry bogs, between town and the very eastern end of Nantucket island.
The edge of the bog is covered by large piles of sand, creating pristine beach fronts on the bog’s edges. Stately mountains of sand across from the vast expanse of the bogs are delivered. This is a special and one-of-a-kind vista to behold.
In January, the island skies are a vibrant blue. The sun is crystal clear and vibrant yellow with red sunsets. As my chemist friend explained to me, “January is that one month in the year when the earth and air are the same temperature, so there is no fog unless we get a sudden warm spell.”
On that day, thirty years ago, my son Clay ran through the woods and ended up on that beach overlooking the bog. He turned to me and exclaimed, “Mom, we own beachfront property!” and off he went. It is not easy to go from one large mountain of sand to the next on the bog because in between those mountains of sand there are 1 – 2 foot-wide streams of water to hop through and across. But we crossed the entire bog. We climbed several of those sand mountains; we laughed; we slid down those sand mountains; and genuinely experienced the wonder of the mystical light and spirit of this magical place.
Now, I don’t want to publicly recommend that you come to Nantucket island in January. My friends and neighbors will exile me to some other faraway island in the Caribbean forever because January is the one month a year that we get the place to ourselves. However, if you want to capture that mysticism for your own life and bring it to your family and friends, you can come—but only if we don’t realize you are here. You come quietly, and then you may retreat and become like the rest of us quiet people—a part of the year-round community.
Leave the island the way you came; leave nothing behind but footprints.
Frankly, a glass of wine, a burger, a salad, a margarita, or a cup of coffee or tea never tastes as good any other time of year as it does in January, as you experience the gift of solitude and peace to bring to your life and to that of your friends.
Welcome to the authentic Nantucket!
Coming Home
