I have been thinking recently about the difference between belonging and feeling at home. They are often treated as the same thing, but I am beginning to suspect they are not even close relatives. Perhaps distant cousins who meet politely at weddings and then avoid…
As someone who does not believe in New Year’s resolutions but firmly trusts in the momentum of end-of-year sprints, I was delighted when I came across Anne-Laure Le Cuff’s article The Practice of Self-Curiosity. She describes with great clarity how curiosity can counteract our natural…
“A guest never forgets the host who has treated him kindly.” Homer wrote this centuries ago, yet the sentiment feels surprisingly modern. One could easily add that hosts also remember the guests who tread lightly. Kindness always leaves a trace on both sides. Over the…
We are in the process of getting new carpet in our apartment, which means we are finally doing something I have been putting off for three years. We have to pack up everything we own, move furniture from one room to the next, let the…
Okay, you’re going to have to brace yourself. I am going to meander a bit before I get to the main point of this post. What I want to talk about, how having time to think is a luxury, is triggered by two stories that…
I was talking recently with a friend of mine who writes music. She is at the beginning of her career and will soon release her first album. She is brave, endlessly curious, and, like all artists starting out, occasionally terrified. We were discussing an episode…
Picture someone riding a bicycle down a smooth road, hands off the handlebars. There is balance in their body, a sense of ease, and a bit of joy. That image has stayed with me. It feels like the right metaphor for how I have come…
Today I am on my way to Nuremberg for the memorial service of a dear friend. She was someone who brightened my life through all the years I have lived in Germany, which will be forty-three this year. Even while I was on the ship,…
People often imagine that the hardest part of going to sea must be the storms. They picture the ship pitching in heavy seas, wind shrieking and pounding on the bridge windows, and crew members clinging to whatever they can find. But that has never been…
One of the questions I have been asked more than once since coming home is whether I kept up with the news while at sea. The short answer is no. For two months, I did not read, watch, or listen to anything that could be…
It has been a little more than two weeks since returning home, and the days already feel oddly stretched, as though time on land follows a different current. This week, I am in Bonn, visiting my daughter and her partner. The morning began with writing,…