By Anne Cotter Moses Comic by Anne Cotter Moses
Island Voices, July 2026
On the Road to Recovery
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…
Island Voices, July 2026
Healing Can Happen
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)…
Island Voices, July 2026
Magnificent Ruins
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,…
Island Voices, July 2026
Jesus in a Stone Buddha
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,…
Children, July 2026
Time Together – Day Trip to Flaming Geyser State Park
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…
Island Voices, July 2026
Endless Chores
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…
Entertainment, Llaughing Llamas
Llaughing Llamas Chronicles – July
By Daniel Hooker From Eliza Q: What kind of shoes does a literary writer wear? A: Converse. ~ Some people are confused about what a will is. To me, it’s pretty obvious. It’s a dead giveaway. ~ Archeologists are having a huge party tonight. They found the largest dinosaur tibia bone ever! It should be…
Island Voices, July 2026
Free Minds, Brave Discourse, and True Diversity – Three Things I Want for Our Island
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?…
Health Matters, Island Resilience, July 2026, Nature
Spagyrics: Renaissance Medicine for Modern Imbalances
By Anthony Latora Spagyrics aspire to redefine what herbal medicine can be. Rooted in the Renaissance era, yet increasingly affirmed by modern analysis, they offer a way of preparing plants that seeks not merely to extract their chemistry, but to preserve their wholeness. Rather than viewing a plant as a collection of isolated compounds, the…