Looking back now, it was the summer when everything changed. It was 1974 and I was eleven years old, not exactly a child but not nearly a teenager yet. My family was poised to move to a new city where I was excited to make new friends and even have a new identity if I…

Last week I spent two days without my husband and also without my internet connection. You haven't lived until you've dealt with a Swiss cable company employee for an entire afternoon. I did my best  to decipher the loud, guttural Swiss-German commands over the phone. And I tried to translate the annoyed and impatient words…

A few days ago, I was sitting on the steps outside our apartment, and I heard a bird I'd never heard before. It had a restless call, full of fluster. And, just as I realized what it was, I spotted it's huge dappled wings wafting down through the pine tree. It was an owl. The…