writer. traveller. life unraveller.
Listen here and please forgive my attempt at basic Thai!! There’s this lovely woman in Chiang Mai who reminds me of a tea cozy. She wears slacks like my grandma did and starched floral blouses, and she has baby-fine salt and pepper hair and friendly eyes looking out of a soft round face. She... Continue Reading →
When I was eight years old, I wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid. Remember those dolls from the 1980s? They had soft squishy bodies with protruding belly buttons, hard plastic heads sprouting hair, and if you turned an unclothed one over, a name scrawled on the little butt cheek. The Cabbage Patch Kid community represented a... Continue Reading →
It’s easy to get lost in a word forest. It’s the consequence of total overwhelm combined with the sheer number of words in the English vocabulary and my complete, unlimited access to all of them. If only I could remember them all. You know that saying, you can’t see the forest for the trees? Sometimes,... Continue Reading →
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why "What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, I have forgotten, and what arms have lain Under my head till morning; but the rain Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh Upon the glass and listen for reply, And in my... Continue Reading →
I used to think life was a chaotic and complicated mess of events and emotions that both fascinated and bewildered me. It’s kind of like being on a roller coaster ride and having no idea when that next loop or fall is coming and feeling somewhat out of control. Or like a beautiful piece of... Continue Reading →
Click play if you prefer to listen 🙂 (18 minute read) Quitting smoking is a very personal thing. It’s like life––everyone experiences it in their own way. I’d like to say that my way is the right way, but that’s only true for me because my way is my own journey. Even though we share the... Continue Reading →
Click play to hear the audio version. In my blog, What I Learned From a Balinese Healer, I told the story about meeting Cokorda Rai, a well-known healer in Ubud, and Ketut, a young man introduced to us by a friend. While both experiences were insightful the main realization I had was that pain can... Continue Reading →
After being alive four decades we expect to know something. We expect ourselves to be something definitive, easily identified by the world we live in and something that perhaps, has a nice label attached to it. I strived for this for a long time. Even when I thought I wasn't. Even when I renounced my... Continue Reading →
If you'd rather listen, click play below 🙂 Every once in a while I have a day where I feel more connected to the stars, the moon, the cosmos, the things hidden from the plain light of the material world–the "real" one, as most of us call it. I crave going further into the abyss... Continue Reading →
It’s been five years since I experienced a Canadian fall. If not for a certain special somebody I would have been long gone, back to Asia, before autumn equinox. Before the temperature dropped, the leaves started to change, and proper close-toed shoes and jackets became necessary. I usually dread the idea of staying past August... Continue Reading →
