It has literally been months since I have written anything, and so much is going on in the world that I feel inspired to make a little blog post. Halloween just ended, but the scariest few days are yet to come. With 2 days until the U.S. election, no one knows what is going to …
One of Those Years 26 December 2022 I had a strange message from an old friend yesterday who said that “you haven’t written much this year.” It is true, I have not. Well, that isn’t exactly true because I write everyday for my job, and I write in my journals and I write poetry and …
Last year, around this time, Rita and I were returning from our honeymoon in Italy. We spent a quiet Jāņi on June 23 in Vilnius, Lithuania waiting for our bus back to Riga. This year, I was happy to stay in Latvia for a more traditional and joyful celebration. Although with the current Covid situation, …
Midsummer. St. John’s Eve. The holiday is celebrated all over Europe, but it isn’t really a thing in America. In Latvia, the celebration of Jāni (both St. John and a mythical all-father sort of dude who is supposed to show up on the morning of the 24th of June) is probably almost as big as …