Grab your copy of The Vashon Loop at businesses and more throughout the Island. Don’t live on Vashon? You can access a copy in pdf form, under Current Issue in the above menu.You can also read all the articles below.
Editorial Page
How Substack Supports Writers and Readers
If you haven’t heard of Substack, you’re in for a treat! Substack is an online platform designed to support writers, bloggers, philosophers, citizen journalists, and literary creatives of all types. The designers of Substack believe good writing is invaluable. What we read, what we learn, what we think, and how we engage in the world…
Island Voices
Staying Healthy With the Seasons
We are in the time of Winter, Rest, Earth, North, Elderhood. Elson M. Haas, M.D. wrote the book, “Staying Healthy with the Seasons.” I was drawn to this knowledge in the 90s, and Haas’s book was very influential on my learning journey. The insights he shared resonated with my inner knowing, and enlivened my passion for health and wellness….
Island Voices
Snowballs and Snowboards
It’s just not nice to be hit with a snowball with a rock in it. At Cove, we forbade the use of rocks. They took the fun out of a good snowball fight. We hid behind the walls of our forts, a wall of giant snowballs that could be four or five feet high. Behind the wall, we…
Health Matters
The Problem With Anti-Lectin Diets
Lectin-free diets seem to come and go with some regularity. At present, Dr. Steven Gundry’s “Plant Paradox” is the most popular version. Anti-lectin diets urge people to stop eating all grains, legumes, and nightshades. They claim that these specific foods contain lectins, a type of protein that binds sugars and can cause cells to stick…
Health Matters
Turn Off the Stress, Breathe Deeply
After two years of pandemic stress, lockdowns, and mask wearing, most people are breathing shallow, contracted breaths. This is what happens under extreme stress. Pre-pandemic, the average person accessed 20-40% of their breath capacity, depending on whether they held trauma or were managing daily life stressors. Can you imagine what it is like now? It…
Editorial Page
It Was a Pleasure to Balance
“It was a pleasure to burn.” As many remember, that is the opening line to “Fahrenheit 451.” Published in 1953, it still occupies the #7 spot on the New York Public Library’s list of their most-borrowed books of all time. Its author, a pulp magazine story writer from the Midwest, tapped most of it out on…
Terms of Concern
Terms of Concern
In March 2021, Forbes Magazine ran an article titled, “The Roots of Conspiracy Theory.” According to Helen Lee Bouygues (the author), “What’s needed is a more nuanced understanding of what drives conspiracy theories, and what kind of interventions can actually be effective against them.“ Labeling conspiracy theories as “far fetched ideas,” she reminds us that…
Health Matters
Masks For All Doesn’t Work – A Practical Dilemma
Respiratory diseases are surging again, and there is disagreement about what we should do in terms of masking. Some people are masking when they go out, some are no longer masking, and some would like everyone to wear a mask. There’s been no answer that makes sense for everyone, and this puts us all at…
Editorial Page
Land Acknowledgment – Waters in Name
Perhaps language arose with humans as a kind of call-and-response with the natural world. In the midst of the companionable sounds around us, we found ourselves with things to say in turn. In any case, nature expresses in our languages. We can hear the waters, aspects of geography, animals, birds, weather, and temperature in the…