Home Beckons

My suntan fades away with each rain-drenched day Days meant for baked beans, boat rides, and ball games But swept away with muddy waters under dark grey skies. Swollen creeks cough up their excess goods to the lowlands While the mighty Susquehanna rises, rises, rises, rises Paying no attention to the prayers lifted up for […]

Image by hII!H I promise to never again ask my husband why he is taking another picture out an airplane window! I finally realize that each time he flies; he recovers, at least for a few moments, a child-like curiosity and wide-eyed wonder of what he sees. You can’t always tell when those moments will […]

Image by chikache The window fan merely moved the stifling July air around the living room as sweat gathered on my forehead, but I still considered fixing a cup of hot green tea. A few minutes earlier, while searching for a photo of our new house shutters to send to my aunt in North Carolina, […]

Image by Hyougushi As business development manager for a large corporation, I have traveled multiple times from the U.S. to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Each trip offered its own unique challenges, some of them magnified by my status as a woman traveling alone. Learn from my mistakes […]

Image by tamaki “Here, take this. I won’t need it when I get to Japan,” I said to my husband right before going through security at the airport. I handed him $300 in cash and my personal credit card, gave him a kiss and hug, and thus began my seventh business trip to Asia. International […]

Image by HYG_a2c “It must be nice traveling to Europe for work,” is a typical comment from some of my office-bound colleagues, spoken with just a hint of sarcasm. They probably imagine that a typical business trip involves boat rides down the Danube or candle-lit dinners in Paris. In reality, business travel offers mixed blessings; […]