By Gates (Pam) Johnson As you may know if you have read my previous rantings here in The Loop, I have been dealing with a cancer diagnosis and treatments since March. For some weird reason, I decided my feelings and experiences might be good fodder for my monthly musings. People may ask, “Why do you…
By Suzanna Leigh The end of my sojourn with the Pilgrims Christian Commune in Hawaii came when a man from the home church on the mainland came to speak to us. Along with some possibly prejudiced prophecies about the coming end of the world, he told us that Ken, the head of Pilgrims, was an…
Part Two: The Falcon’s Nest By Richard Odell from Part One: “My parents would one day move to that island, and within a few years find themselves, by choice of housing, connected by an overgrown lane to the source of that pillar of smoke, a mansion that now lay in ruins. I was but five…
By Mike Ivaska One of the things I really appreciate about life on Vashon is how quickly we can immerse ourselves in nature here. Within ten minutes of walking or driving, depending on where you live, a trailhead awaits. You don’t even have to have anything resembling survival skills – which, for me, is particularly…
By March Twisdale Years ago, a very smart friend of mine said the following: “Puberty blockers are perfectly safe. All you’re doing is hitting the pause button on puberty. When you go off them, everything resumes like normal. No harm done.” I remember that moment. Where I was standing. The weather. The time of day….
By Gabrielle Wildheart I am the cliché of the midlife person who spontaneously develops an interest in birdwatching. I’ve been on the Merlin app for a few years now, but in the summer of my 39th year things got a bit more serious, and I graduated to E-bird. (If you know, you know.) It’s no…
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,…