Here’s a thought…
“Old age is no joke, but it can feel like one.”
TAD TOMPKINS
Community Band cancels spring concert
-- from Karen Key Speck for Orcas Island Community Band -- With regret, the Orcas Island Community Band has cancelled theirspring concert. The June 12, 2020 concert at Orcas Center is cancelled due to theGovernor's social distancing recommendations. Keep music in your lives. Your friends and neighbors in theCommunity Band
Pandemic Poetry | Try to Praise the Mutilated World by Adam Zagajewski
Try to Praise the Mutilated World ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI, translated by CLARE CAVANAGH Try to praise the mutilated world.Remember June's long days,and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine.The nettles that methodically overgrowthe abandoned homesteads of exiles.You must praise the mutilated world.You watched the stylish yachts and ships;one of them had a long
Thursday’s School Board meeting will be held via Zoom
-- from Orcas Island School District -- Notice of aRegular School Board MeetingThursday, April 23,2020JOIN VIA ZOOM LINK: https://zoom.us/j/7661783771 AGENDA 5:00 PM CALL TO ORDER - REGULAR MEETING – VIA ZOOM. Approve Agenda Approve Consent AgendaAppoint Bridget Broderick as OISD School Board Director, District #2.Administer Oath of Office for School
A pandemic paradox: We are closer than it looks
-- by Matthew Gilbert & Minor Lile, Orcas Issues reporters -- If the pandemic has revealed anything about this world of ours, it’s the reality of our interconnectedness – for better and for worse. This has certainly been true politically and economically, while the internet has put an exclamation point
Fire Commission to meet by phone tomorrow
-- from Kim Kimple for Orcas Fire & Rescue -- NOTE: WITH SOCIAL DISTANCING MEASURES IN PLACE DUE TO COVID-19, THE BOARD MEETING WILL BE CONDUCTED BY PHONE CONFERENCE IN ACCORDANCE WITH OPMA. If you wish to submit public comment, please forward by email to kkimple@orcasfire.org by 3 p.m. Monday,
Port Commission releases upcoming meeting agenda
-- from Port Commission -- SPECIAL MEETINGPRELIMINARY AGENDAApril 20, 2020 - 5 p.m. via Zoom Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/83951006056?pwd=aEZCNncyMkJyNUNYalIvRndUTGxDQT09Meeting ID: 839 5100 6056Password: 728029 Call to Order Any Additions or Modifications from any Commissioner(s) Old Business: Janitorial Bids and Lease UpdatesApprove any outstanding vouchers created since our previous meeting. New Items:
Consider joining in: Community grief tending ritual
-- from Stephen Shrader, MA -- This message is addressed to all who have registered for our virtual Community Grief Tending Rituals over the past several weeks. We wanted to send a quick note to let you know that our weekly Sunday gatherings (held by a team of rotating grief tenders)
New video: How to safely shop at the grocery store
-- from Orcas Video -- How To Safely Shop At The Grocery Store | Coronavirus Updates from Orcas Video on Vimeo.
Letter to Editor | Thank you, Orcas community
-- from Lena Kassa for Orcas Senior Center -- All of us at the Orcas Senior Center would like to say a big THANK YOU to the Orcas community for your generous donations to the Center’s recent GiveOrcas campaign. Because of you, we were able to reach our ambitious goal
State recalls 12,000 COVID-19 test kits due to possible contamination
-- from Emergency Operations Center, Camp Murray -- On April 17, 2020, the Washington State Department of Health was alerted by UW Medicine to discontinue use of a recently-procured batch of COVID-19 specimen collection kits that UW Medicine believed may have a quality control issue. As a result, last night
Meanwhile, on East Coast islands …
-- from New York Times -- Visitors to the western end of Fire Island are greeted by a large sign telling them to “Stop, turn around, go back.” In bold, red letters, the sign proclaims that the island’s residential areas are “closed to visitors” and that it has “No restrooms,
Tuning out the pandemic | Flying High in Isolation by Bruce Harvie
New song, just hours old! — from your community — Our musical community reaches out during an unscheduled pandemic to share their tunes. Because music soothes, centers, distracts us... FLYING HIGH IN ISOLATION | Bruce Harvie If you have music you wish to share, send us an MP3 file to
Land Bank preserves remain open in San Juan County
-- from Tanja Williamson for San Juan County Land Bank -- Land Bank Preserves continue to remain open despite other federal and state public land closures because we believe people need access to nature close to home, especially when nothing else in life seems normal. We islanders are fortunate enough
What Wisconsin tells us for November
-- from Hedrick Smith -- Just a few months ago, the smart money in Democratic political circles was no longer betting on Wisconsin as a likely winnable state in the November election battle to unseat President Trump. But the surprising outcome of the state’s April 7 election has put Wisconsin
Pandemic Poetry | Time for Serenity, Anyone? by William Stafford
Time for Serenity, Anyone?by William Stafford I like to live in the sound of water,in the feel of mountain air. A sharpreminder hits me: this world still is alive;it stretches out there shivering toward its owncreation, and I'm part of it. Even my breathingenters into the elaborate give-and-take,this bowing to
Aging Like a Guru | Can you know how great you are?
-- from Rosie Kuhn -- For most of us, the world we live in doesn't support us knowing how great we are. It doesn't support us being fearless, abundant, and extraordinary. In fact, our consensus reality is fear-based, scarcity-based and shame-based. Jeesh! If you are anything like me, allowing yourself
