Thankfull to be on Cape Cod

I am on vacation this week, on Cape Cod - my favorite place on Earth. Aside from the joy of swimming in the ocean (no chemical-laden pools for me!), something about the Cape speaks to me. The salty, sandy, chilliness of it - even on a hot day, there is always the hint of the cold ocean in the air - reminds me to be thankful. Life can be hard, keeping warm can be hard, growing food in the sandy ground can be hard. The ocean and the weather can both be cruel.

But warm days are gifts, and the vegetables and greens that do make it in the garden remind us that, as Barbara Kingsolver says, food is a process, not a product. The ocean is as healing as it is dangerous.

Yesterday I took a walk around the Cove Burying Ground in Eastham. There are many seventeenth-century gravestones in the cemetery, and one in particular that I always remember. I first saw Thankfull Hedge's gravestone many years ago while visiting this cemetery. I have wanted to go back and take a picture of it ever since, because of her great name. She was 13 when she died. Thankfull's two siblings are buried nearby, as is her father, who outlived all three children (the last one by only two days). It is unknown where Thankfull's mother is buried, or when she died.