The first in a series of reflections on the incredible Dialogue 2010, curated by Rose Deniz and on the topic of hybrid identities and location.
The first in a series of reflections on the incredible Dialogue 2010, curated by Rose Deniz and on the topic of hybrid identities and location.
In 1973 Erica Jong wrote the feminist anthem, Fear Of Flying. The heroine, Isadora, though terrified of flying, boards a plane and her subsequent journey leads to a spiritual and sexual awakening that was the one of the first of its kind in print. Jong’s thesis is that the fear of flying is the fear [...]
My reflections on Miep Gies’ death as well as Wendy Soltero’s would-be 32st birthday.
Here in Europe we have this amazing cream called Bepanthen that is phenomenal for healing wounds without any resulting scarring. Doesn’t matter how you got the wound, scrape, burn, but if you use Bepanthen on it you absolutely will not scar. I got to thinking that maybe forgiveness is like that cream. If you don’t [...]
For the first time in my life, I am working with children. I don’t particularly like children, or want to have any of them, but this job is exactly what I need to supplement my writing and so I’m doing it, with interesting results. Day One with the kids was insane. Spending my two hours [...]
I read my first Stephen King novel when I was 12 years old. The book was Carrie and the year was that of the Gulf War I, 1992. Thus began a love affair with King’s books that has continued to shape my life until today.
This year I turned 30 and I’m even more in love [...]
When I was a single twenty-something living in Spain it upset me to no end how difficult it was to make and integrate with a group of Spanish locals. I couldn’t understand why locals wouldn’t want to make a foreign friend and learn about someone’s life outside of Spain, in the same way that I [...]
Unlike most places in the world that can seem alien at first glance, Prague hides her true nature until she trusts you enough to share of herself. The longer you are here the more she undresses her darkest secrets and shows you her violent scars. Kafka called her a number of variations on “the little [...]
I am pretty sure I’ve discovered a new fairy who has been in my life for some time now. I’m calling her The Trauma Fairy, and my belief is she goes into our minds while we sleep and erases things that are just too awful to remember. One of the more dramatic times she visited [...]
Five years ago at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, I met an amazing Californian Phillipina woman and we became fast friends, seeing in each other kindred spirits. Interestingly enough, it was the same year I met Paolo Coelho who told me: “Always keep your heart open; it will bleed, but it will heal.” [...]
Life as an expat can be trying, in spite of its seeming glamourousness. One of the most difficult things I’ve noticed across the board is how hard it is to integrate with the locals of pretty much anywhere. What you find out is that especially in a place like Prague, with a great deal of [...]
The Season 6 finale of “LOST” featured a gargantuan statue of the Egyptian crocodile-headed god Sobek. Being fascinated not only with “LOST” but also Egyptian mythology (I even took a how-to-read-hieroglyphics course a few years back) I figured it must mean something. *Builds a mountain out of mashed potatoes*
Sobek was worshipped in ancient Egyptian creation [...]
A surefire way to alienate good folks and lose friends is by being fake. Fake people are the worst. To clarify, being fake is very different from being polite or professional. Being fake is pretending to be friends with people you can’t stand and not giving them even the slightest moment of pause to think [...]
The awkward transitional periods between one phase of life and the next can give us pause to review our history and see what we’ll salvage and take with us forward. At the moment, I’m saying goodbye to the last year of my life as a relocation coordinator and moving onto a number of new possibilities [...]
Intuition Matters
Thank you, Kiri, for this provocative post and the reminder that childhood lessons are some of the most important.
I certainly know that rumbly churny tummy feeling that is a sure sign something is amiss. For me, my natural intuition was scrambled by trauma and afterwards I would get that “off” feeling all the time. Crippling [...]
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