New Year 2014: On journeying, home & eternity

December 31, 2013 in Canada, North America, Travelogue

There has been a nuthatch at the feeder this week. He arrives intermittently, among the crowd of doves and blue jays, chickadees and the occasional fleeting cardinal. Everyone is hungry; […]

Christmas Eve: On ice, ghosts & dreams

December 24, 2013 in Canada, North America, Travelogue

Ice is art when painted on a living canvas: A perfect curlycue of clear crystal clings to the tip of a wisteria tendril, hanging down from a beam of the […]

Winter Solstice: In which we are home.

December 21, 2013 in Canada, North America, Travelogue

At 5:00 p.m. it is solidly dark on Wolfe Island. At 5:00 a.m. it was also solidly dark. I was driving the long, straight stretch of highway 401, between Windsor […]

Christmas Letter-2013

December 18, 2013 in Inspiration

I have been trying to write this letter for days. Life keeps getting in the way.  It is cold this morning in Indiana. The trees have pulled the thick blanket […]

Family travel instead of holiday gifts, with Thomas Cook

December 17, 2013 in Inspiration

‘Tis the season to buy stuff, right? I’ve been asked several times in the past month “what we do about Christmas” and what we recommend giving as gifts to travelers. […]

Looking with new eyes: On home, and away.

December 16, 2013 in North America, Travelogue, United States

One of the reasons we travel is to see new things. To learn. To grow. To be stretched. To stand outside everything we thought we new and realize that there […]

5 Ways packaged vacations can be a great way to hit the road, with Air Canada Vacations

December 16, 2013 in Inspiration

Getting my haircut, as we travel, always makes me nervous. I’m picky, and my haircuts have to be low maintenance. I put off going for as long as I possibly […]

The gifts we give: Reflections on presents and presence

December 11, 2013 in North America, Travelogue, United States

This time last year we were in Borneo. Orangutans, jungle walks and old head-hunter skulls for Christmas. We rented this house on stilts in Miri, on the border with Brunei, […]

On grumpy elf & ironing

December 9, 2013 in North America, Travelogue, United States

Perhaps the hardest thing about this friends and family tour through the midwestern United States is the pace. Eighteen sets of loved ones hugged tight within the past three and […]

Of fog, family and familiar things

December 3, 2013 in North America, Travelogue, United States

I-94 around Chicago is shrouded in fog. Not the pea soup kind that makes for white knuckle driving. This is the misty, ghostly kind through which leafless black trees reach […]