Jerusalem: Beit Nechemia
Today is Yom HaZikaron, the day Israel remembers its fallen soldiers. As the mother of two IDF soldiers (My daughter wrapped up her service last year; my son is still [...]
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May, 2017
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Apr, 2017
Book Companion Post – Chapter: Surberg Concentration Camp Memorial
Today is Yom HaShoa, Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorated by Jewish communities and individuals worldwide. In Israel, the most remarkable feature of the day is the siren that sounds at sundown (when [...]
16
Apr, 2017
Book Companion Post – Chapter: Israel – At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
In time for Easter, my essay "At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre" appeared on Jerusalem Moments. With it, I thought I'd share a few photos from and around this [...]
11
Apr, 2017
Book Companion Post – Chapter: Haselnusstorte (or: A Flourless Hazelnut Torte for Passover)
"The next time we visited her, a hazelnut torte would be waiting on her kitchen counter, glazed in glistening dark chocolate." Story and recipe on page 166 of Jumping [...]
6
Apr, 2017
In Defense of the Small Seder
"So how many people are you having?" - For sure I am going to be asked this question today when I chat about Seder preparations with my coworkers. Read [...]
4
Apr, 2017
Book Companion Post – Chapter: Fait Accompli I – My Grandfather’s Staircase
Today is the publication date of my memoir Jumping Over Shadows! Hurray! And thus I offer you my very first book companion post, a series I plan to run every [...]
10
Mar, 2017
Purim Costumes from Home Depot
The mermaid and the astronaut mentioned in the story... This Sunday is the Jewish holiday of Purim. I used to dread the arrival of Purim because that meant I [...]
3
Mar, 2017
Sticking with Morning Pages
I love my Morning Pages. In fact, I'm going on four years of doing them. And yet, these days, I'm having a hard time sticking to this practice. This is [...]
24
Jan, 2017
How I Feel About Blogging
"How do you feel about blogging?" Barbara Bos asked yesterday in the Facebook group Women Writers, Women's Books that I belong to. That got me thinking. Then it occurred to me that [...]
19
Jan, 2017
The Craftsmanship of Editing
It never fails to amaze me, even after so many years of working with texts, that, no matter how often you go over the same text, you still find [...]
12
Jan, 2017
Sitting in the Sun
I have a new favorite winter pastime: Sitting in the sun. I've discovered that from about 9:15 in the morning until about 10 o'clock the sun, when it is out, [...]
28
Dec, 2016
Artist & Writer’s Workbook 2017
It's the time of year again to look back and plan ahead, so I am happy to present you with the Artist & Writer's Workbook 2017. It's free; [...]
7
Dec, 2016
Artful Blogging Giveaway
Today is St. Nikolaus, a day I remember fondly from my childhood (see my essay Giving Up Christmas in Tablet, which, incidentally, is an excerpt from my book Jumping Over Shadows.) [...]
4
Dec, 2016
8 Days of Chanukah Emails
I've got a new little project--not that I'm lacking for work or busy-ness, but holidays happen if you want them to or not. So this year, since Chanukah is [...]
23
Nov, 2016
A Writing Exercise to Spark Real Thanksgiving Conversations
One of my longtime memoir workshop students, David Thoele, MD, is a pediatric cardiologist, but he also serves as the Director of Narrative Medicine at Advocate Children's Hospital because he [...]
1
Nov, 2016
My Artful Blogging Story
Scottish Highlands, August 2015 Today the winter issue of Artful Blogging hits newsstands, and it features my photo essay "The Accidental Travel Blogger." This is a dream come true for [...]
31
Oct, 2016
Gravestone Errors & Corrections
While we were visiting Minute Man National Historical Park last weekend, we stopped for lunch in the nearby colonial town of Concord, where I noticed two old graveyards in the [...]
20
Oct, 2016
A Visit to the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery
The Warsaw Jewish Cemetery is a forest of its own. (Photo by Rivka Schiller) […]
18
Oct, 2016
The Story of my Book Cover
Here it is, the cover of my memoir Jumping Over Shadows. And, incidentally, no sooner had we finalized the cover than the book appeared on amazon, book description, author bio and [...]
29
Sep, 2016
Visiting My Old Life
Yesterday morning I had occasion to walk around the downtown Chicago neighborhood of Streeterville where I used to work eight years ago. It's always interesting to see how much it [...]
6
Sep, 2016
Ireland – The Giant’s Causeway, Then and Now
My favorite place in Ireland is the Giant's Causeway on the coast of Antrim in Northern Ireland. I love the mystery of it, i.e. the fact that even geologists are [...]
1
Sep, 2016
August Was…
{August Break 8/31: August was...} ...long! And not as peaceful as this photo, taken from the Rogers Park beach pier on the northside of Chicago. But there were peaceful moments, [...]
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Aug, 2016
5 Years Ago
Canyonlands National Park, Utah {August Break 8/18: 5 Years Ago} Five years ago I was taking a road trip with my family: five weeks, Chicago to California and back. It [...]
12
Aug, 2016
The Secret to Learning a New Language
Today I'm taking a break from the daily August Break topics because today's is "secret," and I just don't feel like I have anything good to share here. Unless, of [...]
12
Aug, 2016
Ireland – How Green It Is
Dunluce Castle, Northern Ireland {August Break 8/11: Green} Today's August Break prompt of "green" is the perfect kick in the behind for me to share some of my [...]
6
Aug, 2016
I’m Reading…
{August Break 8/6: I'm Reading...} I can never just read one book! My current bedtime reading is Yossi Klein Halevi's Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist. I loved his book Like [...]
8
Jul, 2016
Peace is at the Beach
Temperatures have soared in Chicago, and so it's fitting that my beach article appeared on kveller today. The idea for it occurred to me many years ago while sprawled on [...]
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Jun, 2016
Xi’an Muslim Quarter
Perhaps because, unlike sites like the Terracotta Warriors (which had been my number one China bucket list item--photos soon!), I had no preconceptions, no one else's images in my head [...]
21
Jun, 2016
Insights from Judging a Writing Contest
Hemingway Birthplace Home, Oak Park, IL I just wrapped up serving as one of the judges in the Hemingway Shorts contest sponsored by the Hemingway Foundation of Oak [...]
5
Jun, 2016
Grandpa and the Tractor
Father's Day is coming and so it is fitting that my essay about my grandpa, titled The Tractor, should be published this month on Thread, a literary magazine. Writing about [...]
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May, 2016
The Birthday of a Lost Friend
Today is the birthday of a former friend. Some dates are seared into my memory, and this is one of them. Perhaps because this friendship reached the furthest back in [...]
5
May, 2016
Writing Exericse: A Startling Sound
Have you ever been startled by a sound you had never heard before? Stopped in your tracks, wondering what the hell was going on? Felice Benuzzi's unique adventure memoir [...]
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Apr, 2016
Three Years of Morning Pages
I was sure it had been four years since I adopted the habit of writing Morning Pages, but one of the benefits of blogging is that it does provide a [...]
27
Apr, 2016
Building Update
It's been way too long since I've shared an update of our building project, the barn with built-in apartment on our country property in Indiana. This is partly due to [...]
28
Mar, 2016
The Power of Keeping a Promise to Yourself – Visiting the Greek Monasteries of Marsaba and St. George in the Judean Hills
St. George's Monastery, Wadi Qelt Always, always, I have wanted to see the Greek Orthodox monasteries of Marsaba and St. George, built into the cliffs of the Judean Hills. But [...]
14
Mar, 2016
When a Friend Dies
Today I found out by happenstance, via Facebook, that a friend of mine passed away. We weren't close friends or I would have known that her battle with cancer had [...]
2
Mar, 2016
A Navy Blue Sigh – Reading The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber
"Eventually, I hear footsteps crunching along the side of the house through the glazed snow and my mother's navy blue sigh through the frozen air." from The Language of [...]
12
Feb, 2016
The Post-Residency Interview
It's nice when you poke about cyberspace in the evening, too tired to do anything productive, but not quite ready for bed yet, and discover something neat and life-affirming, [...]
1
Feb, 2016
The Gift of a Poetry Reading
Yesterday I treated myself: I went to a poetry reading. Normally, I am loath to schlep up to the north side of the city on a Sunday afternoon, but it [...]
25
Jan, 2016
Happy Tu Bishvat!
Today is the Jewish festival of Tu Bishvat, the New Year of the Trees, and in honor of this celebration that seems out of place here, my article How My [...]
21
Jan, 2016
Life without my Laptop
My laptop died a week ago. It was six years old, and I can't really blame the thing. It held up pretty well being logged around the world. Nevertheless, I have [...]
14
Jan, 2016
Looking Up at the Snow
It snowed in thick flakes the other day. As I looked up at the sky from my window, with ever more fluffs of white tumbling towards me, I felt that [...]
29
Dec, 2015
The Best of Jerusalem 2015
To summarize my stay in Jerusalem this summer in one blog post? It's a tall order, but here goes. We spent an inordinate amount of time on an exceedingly hot [...]
28
Dec, 2015
The Best of London 2015
We took a weekend "side" trip to London from Scotland to visit relatives and tour a little. Here are my best shots from that sojourn. We did the touristy thing [...]
27
Dec, 2015
The Best of the Hemingway House 2015
Doing what I loved to do during my residency at the Hemingway Birthplace Home—poking about, taking pictures; here, in “Abba’s room,” i.e. the room of Ernest Hall, Hemingway’s maternal grandfather, [...]
26
Dec, 2015
The Best of Scotland 2015
For the last few days of this year I decided to run a "Best of..." series to pay homage to some of the best times this year, i.e. travels and [...]
25
Dec, 2015
From the Christkindlmarket
From my traditional annual visit to Chicago's downtown Christkindlmarket, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! It's been unseasonably warm here, no snow flakes and icy cold to company my sipping [...]
24
Dec, 2015
One Reason to Write Memoir
This is not a drawing of the actual stone bridge mentioned in Traces, but it is pretty close to what I still see in my imagination. Here's one reason to [...]
21
Dec, 2015
Artist & Writer’s Workbook 2016
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//forms.aweber.com/form/65/114379965.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, "script", "aweber-wjs-1pkfkcpzf")); It's the time of [...]
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Dec, 2015
A Comfort Book – Ted Kooser’s Local Wonders
The other day I cast about for a comfort book, something pleasant to read in the tub after a busy day. Usually that would mean an Agatha Christie mystery for [...]