I know it’s just the beginning of November, but, in my family, we cannot wait to be done with 2025, to put in the past a year dominated by illness and death, and too much heartache. Life and death. Some

I recently heard a story about a little girl who’d express her indignation at having her hair braided every morning by mumbling incomprehensible words. Took her mother a while to figure out the kid was

The ancients knew the importance of self-knowledge. Some 2,500 years ago, the phrase “Know thyself” was inscribed on the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, ancient Greece. Sadly, humans have not spent millennia

One of the last texts he sent me a few months ago read “miss you girl”. I smiled as I am long past my girly days, but in the palaces of his mind I was still the 20 something girl that once loved him. I

How do you feel when you find yourself in a country where you don’t understand the language? I hate it. Surrounded by signs I cannot make out and people whose conversations make no sense, I tend to feel

A skeptic by definition, I don’t really believe our dearly departed smile upon us and help us with our everyday problems, like finding the damn car keys. Would be quite odd since I don’t have a car. Yet,

I confess - this past week I came dangerously close to being bored. A terrible sin in my book. In my defense, I will plead extenuating circumstances as I was stuck in a Romanian beach resort that didn’t

How many times did you hear someone saying their life should be a novel? I should write it down one day, they tell you. You can only nod, maybe smile, as you cannot tell them it wouldn’t be much of a novel.

Today I spent a rather long tram ride staring out the window. At nothing in particular, just a drab neighborhood that hasn’t changed much in decades. Just so I wouldn’t be on the phone, scrolling through

It lies with the proles. This is one of the most memorable quotes from "1984". It may well be that Winston is deluded when he says that, but, at this point, I don’t see other hope for my country

Pope Francis’ time as head of the Catholic Church can be summed up in one image. Easter Vigil 2020 in a ghostly Saint Peter’s Square where no Christian was allowed to set foot. His flock, millions of

The waiting is killing me, thinks the old man. A dry cackle is forming in his throat, but it wouldn’t do to let it out. What would all the people in the main room think? To distract himself from the

Last Christmas, a niece invited us to hear her singing carols with her church choir. Latin, Romanian and a few English carols, among which one I found very intriguing - ‘Mary Did You Know?’ The song goes

The trees outside my window are nothing special. Plain linden trees you wouldn’t recognize in a line-up. They give off a nice smell when in bloom and a much-appreciated shade in summer. I guess most trees

I was considering something like President TinMan, but Grok came up with PresidentBot and I promised it would get full credit for that. Gotta be nice to the new rulers if you know what’s good for you 🙂

…except fear itself. I had no idea it was FDR who said that in his inaugural address, but the idea was foremost on my mind today as I was walking home from yet another protest. I know I keep writing about

Shock, dismay, disbelief and lots of impotent rage. That seems to be the mood today among European globalist leaders following bombshell news that Trump and Putin are already talking about ending the war

The irony is that his clinging on to power was illegal under the Constitution, but disgraced Romanian president Klaus Iohannis announced today he was stepping down to save the country from becoming the

After spending a few days on a foreign trip, one feels the need to atone for certain sins even though we stayed well within our budget and did not buy any crap. For me, having a good time doesn’t involve

Seville strikes you as a very Catholic city and not just because of the many churches in the old historical part of the city. Many private dwellings display religious images hanging from their balconies,