I wake early with a warm, satisfied feeling. “girl in tree bark “is launched into the world. Instead of waking to walk, I wake to pack the car with Frank. The dogs have left even earlier with my son. We drive to the ferry in Woods Hole, and by 9:00 a.m. we are in our happy place, heading to Chilmark. After unpacking the car, I take the happy dogs down the dirt road on a walk to the beach we have missed for this year. It is a homecoming to one of our favorite habitats. Soon they are both in the water swimming, and we are walking to the fresh water brook to give them a drink. On this first day here I am arriving, still preoccupied with my experience of my book release. I realize I had felt a distance from the book until last night - that I really needed the experience of preparing and reading from it and saying: this is what I have done and how I have done it and why. The book’s arrival in a box was not very satisfying. But last night was. And I have gained many insights that I will be looking at now. For now, I am here, in Chilmark, grateful for the red heart stone I found on my first walk: tonight, remembering what we experienced only a bit over two months ago with my husband’s heart. And what a joy it is to be here together in this favorite place with his renewed healthy heart. A whimsical garden glove waves a welcome to me from a fence post in the old brick factory at the edge of Vineyard Sound.