Tag Archives: Turkey

An Ode to Bathing

I stood in the shower, the warm water cascading over my body.  Random thoughts came to mind:  My mother, telling me, as a pre-teen, that one of the tests of ‘lying’ on psychological tests was ‘Do you like to bathe?”.  … Continue reading

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The Memories Assembled on a Christmas Tree

Until I was 34 years old, I spent every Christmas at my parents’ home.  That year, 1979, I was in rural Borneo, experiencing a Kenyah Dayak Christmas, complete with American carols translated and taught by fundamentalist Christian missionaries and a … Continue reading

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Ode to Cups

One of life’s pleasures is the daily process of choosing a cup from which to enjoy my morning coffee.  I am now at my mother’s house in Portland, Oregon.  She shares this enjoyment and is surely a prime source thereof:  … Continue reading

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A Walk Down Memory Lane

My trip to Cameroon wound up being routed through Istanbul, not something I’d initially planned, but still a thought that pleased. I left a chilly upstate New York (mid-May), where coming gardens, ending classes, and finishing professional papers occupied my … Continue reading

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Springtime and other ruminations

I lie in my Peruvian hammock (obtained in 1983 and speckled with mold from years of disuse), gazing up at the blue, puffy-white-cloud-studded sky. I see the black angles and curves of the tree branches silhouetted against this sky, reminding … Continue reading

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Spring has Sprung–at Last

We had a lovely respite, beautiful blue skies, warm temperatures, for a week in late March.  Then the winter that had never truly come hit us in April.  This pseudo-winter is only now beginning to abate. Yesterday (and today) again … Continue reading

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Literature’s power

Thinking about my own youth, and having just attended a huge, beautiful and extravagant Jewish wedding, I was reminded of a book that had a profound, if temporary, effect on my young life.  I was 13 or 14 when I … Continue reading

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