Okay, so what is haka? Haka is the sacred dance of fire, passion, devotion to the land, the ancestors, the clan, the Earth, and all beings – the great dance of the Māori people. My first glimpse of the haka was a few minutes at the end of the film “Whale Rider.” As I watched…
If we go back in time, we will find stories of working collectively on projects, tending to the land, harvesting and storing food. Not long ago, before moving to Vashon in 2010, I lived for 11 years in a community where 12 of us collectively owned and maintained the property. We came together one Saturday…
I lived in Ashland, Oregon for 2½ years. I liked Ashland very much; artsy, all the theater, pretty scenery, beautiful Lithia Park, good customer service at retail stores and restaurants. And it had a gay bar: “Cooks Tavern.” Unique for a town of only 16,000. But, living in a small town as a single gay…
Welcome back as I continue to weave the tale about our precious human bodies. What we ingest and how we ingest it makes all the difference.In our exploration of extraordinary bodies, we must assess what we ingest. Do we really know what we are eating? Here is why: America’s farming soils are depleted of 85%…
This story began on Seán’s fireplace mantel. There is an old Plymouth master brake cylinder filled with either a mouse nest or some of Seán’s cigar ashes. Some years back, after Seán returned to Vashon, he told me that his first car had been sold to an Island friend, and that somehow it had come…
In January and February 2023, rumors began to circulate. A proposal was afoot! The goal? Rehiring Washington state employees lost due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates. On the Jason Rantz Show (Conservative Talk Radio 770 KTTH), King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn stressed the need to “rehire” King County employees lost to vaccination mandates. He’s standing on…
Empty pastures are like the vacuums which nature abhors. If you happen to have one, fenced and reasonably capable of growing grass, things will appear to fill it. Soon enough, someone is bound to notice, and ask, “Would you like a slightly used goat? How about two?” If you respond, “Yes, but only if you…
Patricia Buchanan’s green burial was a first at the Vashon Cemetery, but not the first on our island. Long before European colonists arrived, the native people living in the Puget Sound received what we today would call a green burial. Begging the question, what exactly is a green burial? Within the realm of traditional burials,…
Photo by Julian Dahl. Used with permission. Several of us were out on the land, picking out microplastics from the compost-laden field (see “Plastics in the Soil” on page x). Our friends had put out a call the day before that they needed help, and here we were, on a beautiful almost-spring morning, plastic bags…