Dugnad. Say it with me: dugnad (doog-nod). It’s a Norwegian word I learned this week; an ancient word, traceable to the Viking Age, when villagers would labor together to bring ships ashore after long seafaring trips….
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A mishap on top of a Mayan ruins leads to lifelong friendship. Asking for help, like offering it, helps make us US.
Especially during this pandemic, the Mississippi River could probably teach us a thing or two.
The words of a retired firefighter and the drowning of a 10-year-old boy inspired this meditation on kindness.
Childhood memories of racing around the pond with Independence Day sparklers inspire hope for more pandemic interdependence.
The summer of 1976, when I was fourteen, Dad decided that our family of five would take a two-week patriotic pilgrimage. We rarely indulged in big vacations. We were unable to afford either the cost…
On 7/29/19 I’ll be taking my brown-bag lunch to the Sioux Falls studio of South Dakota Public Broadcasting for a noontime chat with Lori Walsh and her “Brown Bag Book Club” on “In the Moment.”…
You haven’t heard from me for a while. Sorry about that. Hope you’re okay in your corner of the world. Truth is, my winter was long. Life closed in; was often dark and unpredictable. Our…
I’m recently arrived home from a sojourn with my family in the Smoky Mountains, which are so old and awash in trees, they look like an undulating sea of waves. These images were taken on…
I’m now wearily, happily, home from Costa Rica. My silence during the final few days of my trip was due largely to exhaustion from so many beautiful hikes in the cloud forests around Monteverde and…
Tomorrow I leave the coast of Costa Rica and its gorgeous sunsets for the cloud forests of Monteverde. I invite you to enjoy some of my sunset photography. Just for fun, which of these four…
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