There is comfort to be found in the small community that comes together to share the burden of grief.

Sometimes I suspect that the word “work” is code for “paying attention” and “spending time.”

Phil Crossman has a new book out called Observations: A Maine Island, a Century of Newsletters and the Stories Found Between the Lines.

It was just a camp built by boys, because that is what we were back in 1959—boys in search of adventure where Brandy Brook empties its copper colored water into Carver’s Pond, an estuary of Vinalhaven’s main harbor.

For nearly 20 years, North Haven Community School's high school students have ventured into the woods for a week each year, usually in the fall. They canoe, hike or occasionally bike, most often breaking and making camp each day in a new spot.

As a “small-town boy” growing up in Southwest Harbor, Phil Whitney had dreams of traveling the world. When he entered the U.S. State Department’s Office of Security, he found himself on a career path that would fulfill his dreams many times over.

I was suppressing the myriad feelings and thoughts that kept bubbling up. I hadn’t eaten for many hours, but my body didn’t notice. With my eyes closed, I pictured myself back on Chebeague Island.

The award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Ashley Bryan from Islesford (Little Cranberry Island) often concludes his storytelling performances with a remarkable recitation of Langston Hughes’s poem “My People,” asking his audience to repeat the lines after him.

The obstacles and challenges that come with being the principal of two island elementary schools are many. But those jobs also come with something educators like Heather Webster long for—deep community support.