Two different experiences brought me to today’s column topic. First, I remember reading a poet’s work, after the death of one of his parents, about the surprise of learning there is a whole world of grief support, materials, and organizations. Second, in my own grief experience, I at first thought we had to create what…
Last issue, we suggested that nature expresses in the language its people speak, especially over generations, when the people have a rich relationship with place. Here in the Puget Sound region, the language of land, sea, and people is called txʷəlšucid (which sounds a bit like “twuhlshootseed”). It is also known as dxʷləšucid, or xʷəlšucid,…
I hired a crew to reroof the cabin. After 60 years, the leaks and weight of the moss had compromised the roof. There are just some things that have to be done, whether you need to or not. John and I were watching the workmen, and were grateful we were not up on the…
Marj remembers a Sitka spruce, on the ridge above the Siletz River in Oregon where she grew up, as sacred to the indigenous coastal people who lived in the Siletz Valley. Marj says, “When I was a girl, we had many Indian friends. I was told that sick Indians would climb up to the spruce…
Truth – Honor – Dignity – Compassion – Courage – Love Many humans have trouble understanding the deepest meaning of these words, and how important they are to the success of both humanity and their own personal success and happiness. If you can understand and live the deepest meaning of any one of these words,…
In Part One, I shared how our family found itself deserted by the Social Security Administration, for over ten months and counting… Thankfully, I speak Spanish. Thankfully, the Mexican Consulate helped us piece together this bureaucratic puzzle. Thankfully, I have a cell phone service that allows me to call Mexico. Thankfully, after a woman put…
I grew up in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Long before high tech games and distractions became ubiquitous and childhood changed in so many ways. Gone are the days when children burst forth into their neighborhoods, playing Red Light, Green Light in the streets, dodging slow-moving cars headed home as the work day came…
The coconut treeThick tight clusters at the topUs at the bottom ~ Benson carved a faceSubjugation in BelizeEver blowing wind ~ The end of the rainy season — stray dogs wander wet ~ Famished, I crawled home Embarrassed at the party My sins he forgave ~ Some haiku from Belize and one from last week’s…
The pond that I was turned onto, Bong Ripper Pond, I found the review of it … The elevation was quite high, the trip is full of flowers and greenery, the immersion into the pond is exhilarating and leaves you with a heady, bubbly feeling! While the high elevation leaves you speechless and awestruck, it’s…
Around dawn, on Tuesday, January 3rd, Carla Dawn DeCrona completed her transition from this reality into the next. As her friends here on our Island and abroad learn of her passage forward, almost all have remarked upon the light my mother brought into this world. She was as bright in spirit as the glorious, sky…