Inhaling deeply, I took in the clearness of the June morning. The zoysia grass in our front yard was thick and green and luscious, like a deep-pile carpet. Off in the distance, I could hear a hawk squawking at its mate. Some magnolia blossoms were on low-hanging branches nearby, and…

I’m finding myself weary at the start of every day. Sleep doesn’t provide much calming rest, and I need time to focus myself before I begin any work. That’s frustrating! I want to “get cracking,” but the flesh doesn’t match my spirit. Then I came across a quote online (source…

My husband and I went through our checklist. “Do you have a week’s supply of your inhaler?” We try to keep supplies on hand, just in case. We have contingency plans for disasters, such as an earthquake. We’re ready to shelter in place or “bug out,” depending on the circumstances.

I looked about in wonder. The prairie — the vast, great American prairie, which reputedly had vistas so wide that the horizon was far off in the distance — filled my vision. But the vistas I saw were not wide, and the horizon was not far off. This place had…

I slumped into the wheelchair waiting for me outside the airplane door. It had been a long 36-hour trip. I was able to catnap in my economy seats, but my exhausted body was looking forward to getting home and becoming fully horizontal. Then my phone buzzed. The notice said my…

I tasted the blood from my lip before I realized I had bitten through my skin. I forced the ends of my lips upward and mentally prayed for patience and grace. Taking a deep breath, I explained — yet again — why I travel all the way to the U.S.

“Wear your old clothes tomorrow, something you can get dirty,” I instructed my sixth graders. We were studying a unit on archeology and planned to enter a cave to see what was there. One of the pleasures of living in Papua, Indonesia, is that a lot of World War II history…

Poor, pitiful Pokey. On the night of April 22, my dog had a traumatic experience. The evening started well enough. Pokey was guarding me from under the bed as I caught up on current events. My husband had gone off to the store, and the boys were outside on…

“It rained and it rained and it rained. Piglet told himself that never in all his life, and he was goodness knows how old—three, was it, or four?—never had he seen so much rain.” — A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh“ This was a perfect description of the rain coming down. Before,…

The morning is hushed and still. A golden light shimmers through the air as the early rays of the sun hit the sparkle of freshly fallen raindrops on the banana leaves here in Papua, Indonesia. I lug my laptop out to the porch and prop my feet up on the…