To step onto land unfamiliar is to invoke a kind of magic. It’s a magic of expansion—of the mind, of the spirit, of the air in my lungs too long compressed by stillness. It’s a magic of discovery, of anticipation. It’s a magic of hope. As I step onto that land, I pause, feeling for […]
travel
Cowboy Storytellers Weave Magic
What’s better than an old cowboy telling stories? Two old cowboys egging each other on! In October, I was in Oklahoma City to speak at the Women Writing the West conference. One of the best parts of the WWW conferences is the field trips they include, usually to museums or art galleries that dive into […]
Small, Extraordinary, Everyday Moments in Bonaire
An island of fossilized coral sits surrounded by Caribbean waters about 50 miles off the Venezuelan coast. This island is home to 1,100 wild donkeys, 15,000-20,000 pink flamingoes, and 30,000 wild goats. And only 20,000 people. What this not-so-typical Caribbean island, Bonaire, lacks in glitzy nightlife and casinos, it makes up for with some of […]
Wanderlust Looks Out on a Cold Morning
As I write this, it’s a balmy 2 degrees Fahrenheit here on the eastern plains of Colorado. (That’s –17 Celsius, for those of us who can’t do the conversion in our heads.) As someone whose fingers turn to ice when it dips below 72, I’m not in what I’d call my “happy place” right now. […]
Songwriting Sparks at the Bluebird Café
The Bluebird Café in Nashville has a storied past, as die-hard country music fans will tell you. Not being one of those, I hadn’t heard of it before this past weekend. Shame on me. The Bluebird Café is a tiny little “listening room” tucked into an unassuming strip mall, far from the noise and neon […]
Finding Familiar Stories in Sicilian Ruins
An ocean scene mosaic at the Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina in Sicily Standing in the remains of a palace built nearly two thousand years ago, I stared at mosaics on the floor depicting stories I knew. And those stories aren’t just two thousand years old. In fact, those stories were already a […]
