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Salmon Are My Heroes

December 16, 2013 by Margaret Hammitt-McDonald 2 Comments

With battered grace they thrashed upstream, bashing themselves against the current, rocks, other obstacles, and their own mortality to reach their natal waters. Their ordeal had flayed away their steely overcoats to reveal the muscle that powered their thrust toward the new life for which they would sacrifice their own. [Read More]

Filed Under: Culture, Nature, Spirit, ULE Tagged With: Salmon

It’s a lot of work

November 25, 2013 by T H Savaht 2 Comments

It’s a lot of work
coming Home
retreading
previous paths
turning
at some fateful moment
back
to the by ways of our
Birth [Read More]

Filed Under: Nature, Poetry, Spirit, ULE Tagged With: Cannon Beach, Ecola Creek, Salmon

A Guardian Spirit (Short Fiction)

November 24, 2013 by A.M. Laissig 1 Comment

“Daisy, come quick. He’s back.” The small, shaggy-bearded man danced a few steps in excitement.

A woman moved her girth sideways, through the screen door, letting it slap shut. Frizzy dark-rooted blond hair framed her splotchy sagging face. She snatched the binoculars and trained them on a distant stand of trees growing across Cape Falcon. [Read More]

Filed Under: Fiction, Nature, Spirit, ULE Tagged With: Bald Eagle

Beyond Milk Duds and Fear of Death

October 31, 2013 by Watt Childress 9 Comments

Tradition says this is a time of year when matter and spirit mingle. The boundary between darkness and light becomes sheer now, at the end of harvest.

[Read More]

Filed Under: Culture, Spirit, ULE Tagged With: All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Day of the Dead, Halloween, Michael Burgess

Happy 5774!

September 5, 2013 by Rabbi Bob 4 Comments

tashlikh 2013

The seagulls swooped in immediately to consume our breadcrumb sins, and just like that, we were cleansed! We had just completed the Tashlikh ceremony to conclude the first Rosh Hashanah morning and afternoon service on the North Coast in 50 years, after a wonderful evening service the night before.

[Read more]

Filed Under: Culture, Spirit, ULE

For Farah’s mom (whom I haven’t met)

September 5, 2013 by Jennifer Childress 7 Comments

I met your daughter the other day,
New friend to my Willa,
At a gathering for new college students.
Our girl will be far away.
Your Farah is farther from you.

[Read More]

Filed Under: Culture, Poetry, Politics, Spirit, ULE Tagged With: Motherhood, Peace, Syria

Peninsulas and Islands: A Tale for Coastal Communities

August 26, 2013 by Margaret Hammitt-McDonald 5 Comments

Charles Le Guin’s novel, North Coast, is a peninsula of a story. Set in the fictional community of Bridger Bay, the protagonists—Kim, the narrator, and Steve, who becomes his closest friend and briefly his lover—reach out between individuals, cultures, and elements.

[Read More]

Filed Under: Books, Culture, Featured Writing, Spirit, ULE Tagged With: Cannon Beach, Charles Le Guin

Lifting hearts is as important as fundraising to our community

August 21, 2013 by Glenna Gray 20 Comments

I moved to the Oregon Coast ten years ago after visiting to participate in a week-long painting workshop. During that visit I fell in love with the natural beauty of this place, the kind and progressive people I met, and the air of inclusion I found in the organizations, activities and events in the area. This was quite a change from the atmosphere in the California town where I had been living. [Read More]

Filed Under: Art, Culture, Featured Writing, Spirit, ULE

How the World Can Be the Way It Is

August 13, 2013 by Rabbi Bob 1 Comment

hagen

I’m reading a book by this title, by Steve Hagen, published in 1995. The book has recently been revised and retitled Why the World Doesn’t Seem to Make Sense, published by Sentient Publications. Hagen is a Buddhist teacher with lots of credentials. Anyway, the book so far has been pretty repetitive, basically saying that Reality (with a capital R, the real thing) is different from what we think it is.
[Read more]

Filed Under: Books, Culture, Entertainment, Nature, Spirit, ULE

Into Hellfire Via Portland Frost

July 1, 2013 by Rick Bonn 1 Comment

From the first line, I love this book, and it’s not even the first line but the quote before the first line that jump starts the whole thing. See, it’s Flannery O’Connor.

I’m haunted by O’Connor. This southern woman with pheasants on her farm who died before forty and wrote short stories about serial killers shooting good Christian grandmas and four-year-old boys drowning themselves in baptismal rivers. [Read More]

Filed Under: Books, Entertainment, Spirit, ULE Tagged With: A Prayer for Owen Meany, A Very Minor Prophet, Ayn Rand, Flannery O'Connor, Frederick Buechner, James Bernard Frost, John Irving

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Here Try Some of This Ointment

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Open Letter for Creation’s Caregivers

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Additional Wisdom...

Readers’ Comments

  • Carol Newman
    May 13, 2026 at 3:18 pm
    on Opening the Book of Indigenous Grief
    Deep gratitude for your learnings and teachings dear Cliff.
  • Maranne
    April 25, 2026 at 8:01 am
    on Opening the Book of Indigenous Grief
    Wow… Taylor: a deep poetic Ponca man. So full…overflowing with wisdom, with heart, with courage to share. I’m thankful for
  • Watt Childress
    April 22, 2026 at 6:12 pm
    on Opening the Book of Indigenous Grief
    Thank you for these beautiful words that go straight to the heart of healing.
  • R²
    January 7, 2026 at 7:19 am
    on Smart travel money helps care for places we love
    Couldn't agree with you more. We're dealing with that all right now trying to get the air museum in tillamook
  • Pam Wade
    December 6, 2025 at 8:29 am
    on Adventures with author Charles de Lint
    The first work I read by Charles de Lint was Greenmantle followed by Moonheart. Since then there has not been
More Comments...

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