I never know what I’ll encounter during my morning walks. First thing after coffee, I walk. It is usually dark, except for near the summer solstice. The peace and solitude makes it a meditative experience, which is a nice way to start the day. Yesterday, a fox scurried across the street carrying a plastic-wrapped copy of the newspaper in its mouth.…
I have been immersed in researching The Oregon Trail and life on the prairie in the U.S. in the mid 1800s for my next book, Pioneer Passage, coming out in December. I have been working hard, creating stories based on diaries of women traveling westward, patiently honing my tale, embroidering it with details, lost in the arduous…
We pay more attention to the charge level on our portable electronic devices than we do to our own energy levels. Businesses now accommodate our fondness for phone or laptop usage: Airports have charging stations. Some aircraft have electrical outlets. Coffee shops help us stay plugged in and wired. But, how do we recharge ourselves?…
Yes, it seems like a paradox, but all week I have heard stories of seemingly immutable facts suddenly changing! I was lucky enough to be invited to Harvard University’s graduation ceremonies, to celebrate my friend and co-blogger Joan’s completion of another master’s degree. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, talked about the Berlin Wall, a wall…
Seeing a group of children reading a book I wrote just warms my whole heart, all the way to my toes! Cultivating a love for books and education at an early age is the surest way to make sure a student wants to continue to study, and seek a higher education, after mandatory schooling ends. At…
If each of us just thinks of one way to reduce our personal plastic consumption, we can join the millions of companies making inroads into plastic waste reduction. Geophysicist Kevin P. Maher points out,“It’s time to shift our mindset from recycling to reuse. We don’t want to ban plastic, we want to convert single use plastic…
How many outfits do you need? How many dinner plates or pairs of shoes do you regularly use? How many intriguing book titles do you realistically have time to read? Many of us have an area where our abundance builds up. Books overflow available shelves. Reusable shopping bags could carry a platoon’s worth of shopping…
