Carpe annum

January. We’re still getting used to the idea of a new year. But the days are getting longer. A whole year ahead. Time to dream about things that can happen this year. Maybe a fresh start.

’tis the day before Christmas…

What does Christmas Eve (and Christmas Day) mean to you? Hurrying? Scurrying?

But what if there were no Christmas? Ever!

A train commute and an umbrella

It rained that morning. Not a soft, raindrop by raindrop, rain. But rather a windy, more sideways than vertical, rain. For Martin, this day of commuting would be unlike all the other days. All because of an umbrella.

We’re all immigrants

We’re born. Somewhere. A geographic location. Then we move. Sometimes across a border. We become immigrants.

Goodbye East Berlin

November 9, 1989. The images I never thought I’d see: People, lots of them, by and on top of the infamous Berlin Wall. Whole sections of it coming down. It was a miracle unfolding before our eyes.

Giving thanks — not just for one day of the year

Thanksgiving Day is a huge holiday in the US. But gratitude and saying “Thanks” isn’t limited to only that day.

The greatest threat: External or internal?

It’s far less likely that some foreign terrorist is going to come blow up my house or business than that I will do something myself to derail and mess it up.

The power line

It was a dark and stormy night. Thunderclaps aplenty. Then another, really loud noise. Much closer. That couldn’t be good!

Of pinpricks and a Milky Way

How often do you stop and look up at the sky at night? Quite possibly not that often. Because we tend to be in a hurry to get home. It’s dark. And there’s nothing to see up there anyway. Except there is …