Memoir of life looking for my daughter — Truth and life are painful. In life, children die and disappear, and the pain is still there even after the story ends. In fiction, the writer creates an imaginary world of pain and lives in it while she writes. But when the story is told, when the last word is…

Grandma’s Historical Menstrual Tour — My 6-year-old granddaughter Josie wants to be ten. My response is: “Six is a great age.” She doesn’t buy it; she wants to be ten. “I’m ten,” she tells me, holding up her fingers. “What about six, seven, eight, nine? …

I Know not this

Write. Read. Repeat. — Sorry, folks. I’ve been on the move as of late with intermittent internet and walking 10–12 miles a day. So… let me first know if this is a journey you want to continue. Are you in or out? Answer this in the comments. Otherwise, we can let some new voices join us. Also. Some of us here have older articles that have not gotten much attention. …

Let us burn one from end to end — I am fascinated by candles. The way they flicker in light, whisper in shadows and dance in graceful embrace. Unfortunately, I’m somewhat allergic to them, so I rarely use the real ones anymore at home. The electric ones are cost-efficient and don’t omit a smell and squeeze my lungs. Not…

A poetic reflection — As time has passed, I often see people I think I know or knew on this crazy river of life. A brief encounter at a stoplight in Madrid resurrected fragments of my memory and imagination and inspired this poem. I saw you today an angular wiry man pointed down Calle Alcade como fue…

Navigating life’s challenges one step at a time — I’m on another pilgrimage, another heroine quest, so to speak, to find the center of my being — to rediscover my soul. This time I’m on a pilgrimage to Fatima, a site in Portugal associated with the Virgin Mary’s apparitions. I’m on my own Joseph Campbell “monomyth,” a heroine of…

Let’s go to the Cervantes Library! — I love books, love to read them, smell them, collect them — hoard them. I have tipsy-towering piles of books in every corner of our house. My bookshelves are two rows deep. So when walking down Madrid’s Puerta de Alcala yesterday and spotting the Cervantes Library, I was thrilled to…

Discover its wonders — Welcome back to our collective reading group. We have our travel itinerary below. Just remember a few things with this Reading Community — you must read as per the time of the article. Remember, this only works if you reciprocate. Here’s the spiel again: Read the articles; try not to…