“Walking, ideally, is a state in which the mind, the body, and the world are aligned, as though they were three characters finally in conversation together, three notes suddenly making a chord.” ~Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking Most mornings I walk. Herb and I leave the house as early as the sunrise allows, … Read More
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” ~Zora Neal Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God We had just returned home from our Middle East travels last November when our daughter texted that she needed to talk. Right away. We knew it must be important because 1) she didn’t mind that we were … Read More
“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” ~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Fall comes late in California. The warm gentle air of summer still lingers, wrapping itself around your shoulders like a favorite woolen sweater. The earth is a dusty powder; the sky, the color of sapphire. But for … Read More
“Every dreamer knows that it’s entirely possible to be homesick for a place you’ve never been to, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground.” ~Judith Thurman A few days ago, I ran across a word I’d never seen before that literally stopped me in my reading tracks. Fernweh: (noun) An ache for distant places; a … Read More
About six weeks ago an inquiry popped up in my Facebook message box from journalist Nourhan El Kelawy, wondering if I‘d be interested in having a blog post I’d written about Oman’s ancient lost city of Sumhuram featured on the CNN Arabic website. I think it took all of about five seconds – and a … Read More
“Afoot and lighthearted, I take to the open road. Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.” ~Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road The original plan was to fly. In the perfect world scenario that had played in my mind, our bags would be packed, and … Read More
It was one of those infamous Southern California mornings of May Gray when you want to reach up and pry the clouds apart. The sun is comfortably hidden above its shroud-covered floor, and you know that no amount of wishing or cajoling is going to make it break through the fog. I was sitting at … Read More
These days of social distancing are folding one into the next, as if the calendar’s only purpose is to decorate our desktops. Except for daily walks in the neighborhood and weekly grocery runs, we remain inside, quarantined in a strange new existence, hiding from an invisible foe we hope to never meet. It has been … Read More
“I would do it soon.” It was the word we were dreading to hear. Herb and I were sitting in the office of Dr. Lars Svensson, world-renowned cardiovascular surgeon and Chairman of the Heart & Vascular Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Svensson was reviewing the status of a defective heart valve that Herb had … Read More
“If bliss can be described as an exalted state of wishing not to be anywhere else, then this had been bliss.” ~Paul Theroux, Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings Car horns were beeping, and morning traffic was in full swing as we headed out on Ring Road to the Giza pyramid complex. It wasn’t Cairo’s traffic that … Read More