Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Island Book

While perusing the amazing variety of books offered at the Lopez Friends of the Library sale a few weeks ago (where else can you purchase a reusable red bag imprinted with the library logo and fill it to the brim, or past,  for $20???), I discovered a little treasure:  Reflections on Life in the San Juan Islands by Mary Kalbert.  A signed copy, no less!

A few gems from her musings (found in the introduction) that particularly strike a chord with me include:

"There is a particular question asked of every islander who wasn't born here.  It may come early in a budding friendship, or much later, but at some time the question 'How did you get to ....[the] island?' will arise."     This is so true!!  It happens every single time that I meet someone new!

While visiting the island (Mary lives on San Juan, but this certainly works for all of the islands) for the first time, she remarked: "But I felt something stirring, a deeper yearning, something at that moment I could not articulate."   And I've tried to articulate that "something" for myself.  To me it is an energy of Lopez, a vortex if you will, that resonates deeply within my very being. Well, that, coupled with childhood memories of growing up by the saltwater and rural living.

"We discovered that each of us had felt 'taken' with the island, an unspoken sense of homecoming we could not explain."  I will venture to say that every one of us who have come to live on the islands have felt this very same thing.  It's just that somehow we found the courage to act on it, or maybe just the willingness to take the leap and follow our heart, instead of our head, for a change.

Moving to the island probably is a little bit crazy.  But we crazies seem to be in good company.  Perhaps that is why everyone is so friendly, and it feels like family.  Each of us made that decision to act on our dreams, and embrace The Rock as home.

If you want to read her book, you may find it on either on Amazon or for a signed copy, on Mary's website:
http://marykalbert.com/index.html
Reflections on Life in the San Juan Islands





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