Five days into our Israeli trip already. I am snug in bed in the Golan Heights, trying to assemble the last few days in my mind. I’ll just throw out the highlights, to bring us to now. We left Beirut on the 14th. Easy travel through Amman, no grilling by immigration on our entrance to…
Category: Care and Feeding of the Soul
Bye Bye, Beirut ~~ December 16, 2017
We woke up in Nazareth this morning, in an old mansion, once owned by a prosperous Christian, now converted to a guest house for tourists and pilgrims. The last few days have been tightly packed and I was trying to finish a textbook chapter, so that was where all my writing efforts went. No time…
I’m here! ~~ December 9, 2017
All my life, Lebanon has just been an idea, a place out of reach, birthplace of my grandfather, and source of the truly amazing food, at once exotic and familiar, that my grandmother cooked. I’ve tried to get here several times, but war shut the country down. You can see the scars on the buildings….
Evolution of a marriage ~ and of a wedding ring ~~ August 5, 2017
When I was a little girl I had a silver friendship ring that had belonged to my mom when she was young. I still have a letter Mom wrote me when I was about 11 and away from home for the first time, visiting a friend in the Virginia neighborhood we had left to move…
For Mom ~~ reprinted from May, 2014
For Mom For the first time in my life, this Mother’s Day will dawn and I will have no flowers to send, no call to make, no smile coming over the line, filled with pleasure at the sound of my voice. The idea of a Mom-less Mother’s Day makes me so sad I am tempted…
Ghosts of Graduations Past April 25, 2017
Somehow the end of the semester crept up on me. I thought I had another week after this one but no, my own schedule, my syllabus, and IU’s official academic calendar do not lie (I checked them all.). Graduation is May 6th which means my class ends before that. Damn. I could have used the…
When Food is Not Your Friend April 22, 2017
I felt pretty good on Thursday. Despite spending the day before guzzling barium and watching it trickle through my digestive track via x-ray, I woke up to a beautiful morning and the prospect of 7 a.m. yoga. I was a little wobbly – haven’t been eating much of substance lately due to whatever ails me…
and away she goes.... 