November 30, 2025 As our moon brightens into fullness this week, it becomes the Samish “Moon of the Elders,” the S7elálexw Moon [S--el-AL-uhh], a time to gather indoors with friends and family during these short days and long nights, to sing, tell stories, exchange gifts, and celebrate the close of the year. S7elálexw Moon (Samish Moon of the Elders) One of those elders, another dear friend, passed away unexpectedly this week. He had lived a full life, full of gentleness, ful

The doctor told me when I was a child that I had a heart murmur. I had no idea what that meant, other than that it made a quiet whooshing sound along with the steady beating. Murmurs are like spreading rumors or pleading prayers, done in whispers, except by lots of people at the same time. But not just people; animals spread rumors too, and not one by one but seven by seven, a thousand by a thousand. And not with a whisper, but with the beating of a wing or a fin, a change of

A dear friend passed away a few days ago. He was a force for good wherever he went. He grew up near Oregon’s ocean beaches, and salt water was in his blood. I guess that’s true of us all, literally. Our blood still carries the memory of primordial waters, whispering ancient knowledge that connects us to the depths of the sea and our earliest origins.  “The water in our cells is the same as the water at the bottom of the ocean. I love the kinship that chemistry implies.”   - R

ICU It was a typical kids’ cold: runny nose, sore throat, a little pale, a little lethargic. My three-year-old son and his best friend shared the germs. His friend got better in a couple of days. My son did not. And he continued to lose energy, languishing on the couch all day. And he looked so pale. We took him to our family doctor, who did not like what he saw. He told us to drive the two hours to Children’s Hospital in Seattle the next day. There, another doctor did hours