By Marc J. Elzenbeck There are good reasons to bury treasure. Fear of discovery and theft is well-founded, transport risk is real, and it is wise to avoid temptable natures. Love isn’t known to top the list, but it might be the oldest reason and the best. A love story is why Vashon has been…
By Jane Valencia On Summer Solstice Eve, poets and poetry lovers gathered from the Island and across the water to celebrate our new poets laureate, Iris Spring and C. Hunter Davis. The event took place at the Open Space for the Arts & Community, which now shepherds Vashon’s Poet Laureate program. Initiated in 2011, with…
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 Rich Osborne Hey, Vashon, it’s summer! Time to relax for a moment and enjoy our victory. To remember all the Coho Salmon we just saved. Not to pretend that we are done, but to smile over a glass of something and look forward to next year. I‘m talking beach tires, of course. In 2025…
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 Ali Elsberry Of the many benefits of homeschooling our family, one of our favorites is hopping into the car and heading out to explore someplace new. Sometimes we get lucky and stumble upon these places while out and about, but other times I do a little research ahead of time and come up with…
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…