I’m Wondering How Ancient Athletes Cheated

Every site has it’s own story and another way it grabs me and invokes my imagination. A friend once described ancient ruins as “old rocks,” but for me they are so much more than that. They are fingerprints and sweat, labor and pride, and they are memory and mirror. Messene, yesterday, was multilayered, like an […]

In Which Greece Goes Beyond

We set out from Napflio driving 2 hours to the southwest, deep into the Peloponnese and rural Greece. The condition of the roads here is extraordinary, with wide open highways, pristine tunnels, and smooth, easy pavement. Even the tiny country roads are well maintained, with rare congestion slowing us down. Our destination was far afield […]

I Won’t Be Buying Honey For a Very Long Time

The sun was just starting to drop in the sky, and the far horizon was barely beginning to turn to pink as we made a quick u-turn on the highway that was taking us back from ancient Mycenae to Nafplio. We had to stop here, at this particular farm stand, because I needed to do […]

I Know Those Songs, But I’ve Never Heard Them Before

The hands of the clock had ticked to well past 9:30, the sun was a distant memory, and Dan and I still sat at the restaurant, lingering over our food, and just allowing ourselves to be here, in this moment, with the call of sleep whispering in our ears. The men smoking and singing at […]

Of Sacred Spaces and Moments

I had a traditional hotel buffet breakfast this morning, of sorts, although the buffet wasn’t nearly as active as I’ve been accustomed to. And I didn’t overeat as much as I often do, usually wanting to try one of every item that looks new. It was fine, but it wasn’t nearly as good as yesterday’s […]

Getting to Know My Egyptian Family

I have had the good fortune in my lifetime of meeting a very large number of people. Among them are a family who live in Egypt. When I was considering whether I should even consider taking this trip, I reached out to one of them about the state of things in her country. She didn’t […]