Articles

Many years ago when I lived in New Zealand, I was in charge of a vehicle servicing organization and a fuel supplier. One client owned a fleet of trucks.

As an officer in the US Navy SEAL (for Sea, Air, Land) teams, I was deployed to the Middle East for Operation: Enduring Freedom. This was from March to September 2002.

After World War II, I was living in Salzburg, Austria. New reinforcements of occupying soldiers had just arrived, and women didn't dare walk alone on the streets after dark.

During the years that I served in the United States government, I often traveled in the police-escorted Presidential motorcade. On one of these trips, the motorcade was scheduled to carry the American First Lady through Memphis, Tennessee, a city in the American South.

One day a couple who are my close friends gave me a ride home in their car. When we realized their car had a flat tire, we pulled over to the shoulder of the road.

Imagine living in a country where the threat of terrorism is so great that people leaving their homes in the morning wonder whether they will return at night. Where riding the bus to work is anything but routine.

The capacity for joy is a vital part of life. Joy begets joy, and it deserves regular nourishment and exercise.

Travelers often bring home stories about what happened while they were away. Sometimes the stories are amusing: what they ate, whom they met, how they missed a connecting flight.

When Emma Grewal, age eleven, and Abi Grewal, age nine, moved all the way from Sydney, Australia, to Bombay (Mumbai), India, about two years ago, they knew that things in their new city would be different. They'd been to India before to visit their grandmother.

Although Admira Thomas has lived more than 25 years in the United States, she thinks often of her native country, Sierra Leone. She says it boasts one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world.