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Red Pandas in snow

youtube.com/watch If your week is starting out like…you know…I think the odds that you can get it back on track by watching this video are actually quite good.

Women Winding a Ball of Yarn “Don’t fidget!” snapped Aunt Elisabeth. The silence was what was making Ursula fidget. Usually her aunt gossiped away about the neighbors as they wound balls of yarn together for her knitting work, but not today. Ursula didn’t mind winding so much as spinning. True, her arms got tired fromContinue reading “Advent Calendar Story: Day 10”

Advent Calendar Story: Day 9

The Gaming Booth Ursula stood with a cup of glühwein warm in her hands watching two little boys play games in the Christmas Market. They were tossing wooden rings at a wall of pegs in the hopes of winning a little whittled cat with its barky tail curled winsomely around its belly. She couldn’t believeContinue reading “Advent Calendar Story: Day 9”

The Wisdom of Youth

I’ve been watching a lot of vlogs lately with 20-somethings dispensing sage life advice. It reminded me that when I was that age, I thought I knew everything, and at the same time, I was totally insecure about myself and my knowledge about the world. As I’ve gotten older, I’m more sure of what IContinue reading “The Wisdom of Youth”

Koharu Sugawara Dance Cover (“Elastic Heart”)

So, this is why I haven’t been posting a lot over the last couple of weeks: I’ve been working like a crazy person on this project–actually I’ve been at it for months, but really intensively for the last 4 weeks. And I think it’s a fitting note to end my Berlin sabbatical on. I actuallyContinue reading “Koharu Sugawara Dance Cover (“Elastic Heart”)”

Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit G: Street Art

When I was enrolled in my Goethe Institut German course, I had the opportunity to go on two great walking tours through Kreuzberg, a fascinating district next to mine with a really absorbing and dramatic history of settlement, neglect, squatting, redevelopment, civic rebellion, immigration, and revitalization. The second tour focused on street art, which IContinue reading “Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit G: Street Art”

Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit E: Schöneberg and Friedenau

I did one of my long errand-running bike rides this week, and though I didn’t find most of what I was looking for, as usual I gained some serendipities I wasn’t expecting–mostly, a tour of the lovely 19th-century West Berlin neighborhood of Schöneberg (and a bit of Friedenau). Schöneberg immediately struck me as quite differentContinue reading “Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit E: Schöneberg and Friedenau”

Scrambling: A Normandy Bike Tour, Part 1

Well, truth be told, this was a Brittany–Channel Islands–Normandy tour, the planning of which ended up being just as epic as it sounds. The biggest reason for this was the tour involved ferries, and one of those ferries (I’m looking at you here, Manche-Îles) abruptly changed their stated policy on transporting bikes *after* I hadContinue reading “Scrambling: A Normandy Bike Tour, Part 1”

Mask Lift

I’m going to kind of miss wearing a mask when we finally can stop doing it: it covers at least 60% of the evidence of my actual age!

Aikido and Rhetoric: Polishing

The only cure for materialism is the cleansing of the six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind). If the senses are clogged, one’s perception is stifled. The more it is stifled, the more contaminated the senses become. This creates disorder in the world, and that is the greatest evil of all. Polish theContinue reading “Aikido and Rhetoric: Polishing”