Stories

Stories From Past Invasions - August 1968. In 1968, I arrived in Prague on the same day as Russian tanks filled the city square. As I watched Russian tanks invade Ukraine, I couldn’t help remembering the faces of the Czech families in the streets the day the Russians...

My February began in Guatemala, a country I first visited in 1958 when the country was on the verge of civil war. Decades of war and unrest followed and it wasn’t until 1996 that Guatemala returned to a peaceful, civilian government. During my visit, I visited a Mayan...

While quarantined in Barbados as the country’s health officials considered the multiple COVID tests we took to pass just one night in transit in the country…I discovered this wall with a dazzling display of lighting options. Flipping those switches must punctuate the...

Are you familiar with the origins of Parmesan cheese? In the 17th century, Samuel Pepys buried his cheese in the ground surrounding his house, perhaps in his garden, as a way to protect a precious asset. Parmesan cheese was and still is considered a valuable...

After a quick visit back to Maine this month, I felt the seasonal transition through the sights and smells along my morning run. It was cold: 30 degrees feels bitter cold when you arrive from Austin, Texas where the morning temperatures plummet to 50 degrees. The cold...

This summer while in Maine, I changed my running route to head south instead of north along our rocky coastline. Early morning, just after a short espresso and a skim of news headlines and some spiritual reflection time. Out the door, a mix of walking hills and...

Country roads can take you home to where you belong and recently, the residents of Owls Head had a homecoming of their own to celebrate 100 years of this town. Locked up in their homes during the pandemic, scattered by the constraints of mask mandates, the partygoers...

Have you ever done a live cheese tasting through Zoom? 🧀🧐 Since I’ve been working on my upcoming documentary related to cheese, Shelf Life, I’ve had many opportunities to partake in some (tasty) research for the film. And one piece of my research included a live...

Remember the crisp feeling of a paper map in your hands? With GPS apps readily at our fingertips, paper maps are needed less often, though maps in the form of artwork are still quite popular. Maybe the colors are easy on the eye, or an artist got creative by...

Last week a color photograph fell out of a book in Maine that showed my family, sitting in the sun on wooden chairs around a hotel pool in Antigua Guatemala in the ‘70s, a dormant volcano in the background - just like this photo. Today I work with a university in...