I'm excited to announce that my blog post, A Call to Prayer: Morocco, was recently published online in Wanderlust: A Travel Journal. During my trip to Morocco, I was struck by the religious imperative to pray five times a day. Of course, I had no … [Continue reading]
Introverts Have the Edge: A Virus Teaches Us How to Spend Time Alone
Gertrude is freaking out. I don’t blame her. She’s an extrovert and now we've been ordered to shelter in place for a month. But she’s not making it any easier on herself. The news is on full tilt and she’s watching the stock market plunge. There are … [Continue reading]
Iceland: How Adversity Might Save the Planet
You can’t visit Iceland without thinking—now here’s a people who’ve truly made the best of a bad situation. The landscape is stark and unforgiving: Scalding hot geysers. Craggy lava rock. Steam spewing to the surface heaving gray and … [Continue reading]
The Rescue: A Short Story
The stranger who rescued him was a dark-skinned woman. She'd been wearing a green dress with flowers and a matching sweater, delicate pearl buttons running down the front. She smelled exotic like rose petals. All he wanted to do was to thank … [Continue reading]
Colombian Courtesy: The Declining Cost of a Tinto
A sign at a café in Medellín illustrates the Colombiano passion for courtesy. Un tinto—a small cup of black coffee—costs $2000 Colombian pesos. Or about 65 cents. Ask for your tinto with a simple “por favor” and the price immediately … [Continue reading]
Thin Places: The Possibility of Transformation
At the time of the winter solstice, the veil between heaven and earth narrows, opening us to the possibility of transformation. In some spiritual traditions, it’s called a thin place, an idea that captured my attention enough to use it as the title … [Continue reading]
Play it as it Lies
In between fetching pain pills and making me lunch, Gertrude watches me grimace every time I roll over. Or get up to go to the bathroom. Sneezing is the worst. “No more golf for you,” she says. I’m recovering ever-so-slowly from a bulging disk. … [Continue reading]
Sex and Lies and Apologies
No one is expected to be squeaky-clean cradle to grave. As a psychologist at a university counseling center, I was privy to many regrets and misbehaviors, lies, secrets, and even some illegal acts. On a handful of occasions, young men confessed to … [Continue reading]
A Call To Prayer: Morocco
The muezzin lolls me out of a deep sleep with his plaintive call to prayer. It's 5:30 in the morning, pitch black but for a swath of light through the curtains. Two-wheeled carts are rumbling along the cobblestone walkway below. A moped whizzes … [Continue reading]
The Future of #MeToo
For months, I've been edging toward writing another blog post about musings on a recent golf lesson. It was going to be humorous with a message at the end about not being too self-critical. I wish I could feel good about writing that post. But the … [Continue reading]