One Important, Mindful, Calming and Life-Affirming Thing You Can Do During this Challenging COVID-19 Pandemic: Keep a Record
War time diary of 12-year-old Sheila Cohen, living in London, 1940 (Jewish Museum, London - I took this photo in December 2018) Be sure to keep a diary of these challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic! It doesn't have to be a diary like the one pictured above, kept by 12-year-old Sheila Cohen during World War II in [...]
Keep Calm and Carry On – That’s All I Can Say at the Moment
"May you live in interesting times" is purported to be a Chinese curse but it actually isn't. Nevertheless we currently live in interesting times, and it does feel like a curse. Apparently this saying can be traced back to the British diplomatic corps, which also fits because the best directive for this time of the coronavirus pandemic is the famous [...]
A Favorite Recipe for the Jewish Holiday of Purim: Chocolate-Poppy Seed-Filled Hamantashen
It's the time of year again! The Jewish holiday of Purim is around the corner. I have shared why it took me a while to get into giving Mishloach Manot for Purim, a custom that first struck me as rather odd. How I got into that is captured in my Kveller article Why Jews Need This Silly Purim Tradition. Baking [...]
The Three Toughest Challenges in Writing Compelling Stories from Family History and Other Insights
My ever handsome friend Larry Palmer (on the left) with his niece and younger brother. I'm very proud that his excellent family memoir Scholarship Boy is coming out in May because I saw its beginnings when I served as a teaching assistant at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop in 2013. Barbara Krasner from The Whole Megillah recently interviewed [...]
10 Unusual Prompts to Help You Start Writing Your Family History
If you want to write your family history and are floundering with where to start, look no further! Sign up here to receive my booklet 10 Unusual Prompts to Start Writing Your Family History! I promise you will get something down on paper if you follow at least one of these prompts. Chances are, you'll end up with a lot [...]
Ode to My Hiking Boots: Saying Farewell to My Feet’s Best Friends
This summer, I finally had to give you up. I embarked on my trip to Peru with a new version of you, Just as comfortable and snug, but water tight. It felt odd not to have you along, My hiking boots who have been with me on every trip since 2004, When I bought you for a shooting class in [...]