Monthly Archives: January 2018

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ~Berthold Auerbach I count my many blessings daily – But, some days are still harder than others. I always experience post-holiday (Christmas-New Year-Birthday) blues: a greater-than-usual melancholy that is at least in part the consequence of too much food and alcohol and too many […]

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There is an irony in being able to see animals better in the wild than you can at a zoo. My husband and I had grandchildren visiting over the Christmas break, so we took the opportunity to spend a day at Sydney’s beautiful Taronga Zoo. Now, I love this particular zoo (see: A Tale of […]

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Every cell in my body was alive and smiling! I had sun on my head and dirt under my feet. With my arms swinging and my feet walking, I was finally on the move, and every step was a joy. I love walking – that is, until my knees lock up and my hips inflame, […]

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Rice is absolutely central to Balinese society. In Bahasa Indonesia, the lingua franca in Bali, nasi, the word for rice, also means “meal”. But in Bali, rice is so much more than that: the whole process of growing and harvesting rice is at the very core of the island’s religion and culture. Since around 900 CE, the Balinese have followed […]

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