By Melanie Farmer If there were an ancient system that offered specific guidance for each stage of your life, would you want to know more about it? In Vedic astrology, this system exists, and it is known as the Mahadasha cycle. What Is a Mahadasha? In Vedic astrology, or Jyotish, Mahadasha is a major planetary…
By Gates (Pam) Johnson Surgery is in the rear-view mirror. It happened on May 28th, starting at 8:30 in the morning. Of course, I was asleep by then. The trip to the hospital was fine (one thousand thank yous, Sarah). Check in and wait wasn’t bad. Then back to the “staging area”: gown up, install…
By Deborah H. Anderson Warning: sensitive material, descriptions of violent abuse and suicide. The first year of our marriage he strangled me. His hands around my neck, his face filled with rage, I steeled myself against his attack and declared, “Take your hands off me, and if you ever touch me again (in a violent way)…
Part One: Alexander’s Field By Richard Odell “People seem, but things are.” Rainer Rilke It all went back to the war. My parents’ eastern Washington origins were always somewhat murky, to me. More often, when they spoke of past times, they referred to their days at High Point, a war-time housing development in southwest Seattle,…
By Suzanna Leigh If you asked me now if I love Jesus, I would probably say something like “Yes! and also Yeshua, and Isa and Buddha, and Quan Yin, and every other Spiritual representation of all-encompassing love.” Years ago, when I was a hippie in Hawaii living in a Christian commune, it was Jesus, Jesus,…
By Seán C. Malone and John Sweetman Seán and I talked about our story and came up with the idea of our early money-making jobs. It turns out that Seán had been involved for some time in a “pen pal” arrangement with some young literate persons and had pursued this; his story follows mine. In…
By March Twisdale Today, on Vashon Island, most people police themselves and their speech. Reticence to express full and honest opinions has become the norm. I know this because people tell me it is so. A woman slows to a stop in the middle of the road, calling out to me, “You’re March Twisdale, right?…
By Mike Ivaska What does it mean to be “from” somewhere? Do the places we are from still exist? If so, in what sense? And if not, should it matter? Like any good, self-respecting longtime Islander, I have been known to wax philosophic about the way Vashon “used to be.” Even as I sat to…
By Suzanna Leigh Beside me, Steve holds his cat Bunny gently, wrapped in a blue bathroom towel. We are driving to the Fair Isle Animal Clinic. The glow of love emanating from the two of them fills the car. This may be Bunny’s last day. When Steve called me first thing this morning, he was…
By Suzanna Leigh James and I were still living with the evangelical Jesus-loving Pilgrims in a mansion on Hilo Bay when it happened. One day while James was in school, I hitchhiked into Hilo to buy some watercolor paints and a roll of rice paper. Karl and his partner, who had so generously put us…