Prisoner of Hopes

Tag: family

  • Valentine Adventure: Travel Goals

    February 14th arrived a little cooler and cloudy. Valentine’s Day is usually like that. . . a lot of hype about a cold day in the “F” month. This day, however, we finally got to take a train to Cascais. The seaside beckoned out the windows of the train as we moved along the Estoril…

  • Roots

    The roads are winding and only sometimes paved.  Creeks and man made ponds dapple the landscape, visible between tall stands of oak and pine. Heaven on Earth.  Turkey vultures strut through barren fields.  Rocks are plentiful in the overturned soil.  Cattle call across the hills and hollows. Hauntingly beautiful and impossibly difficult terrain. It is…

  • Invisible

    Blame it on the weather or perhaps the post Christmas Blues, but the last several days I have been melancholy. That is far from my usual optimistic self. I have felt invisible, tucked away in my quiet corner, left to do the many things that need to be done with no fanfare or hoopla. Melancholia…

  • Christmas Whispers

    What is it about Christmas preparations that create such divided feelings? For some, it is (to borrow a cliche) the most wonderful time of the year. For others it is a chore that produces anxiety and depression. Perhaps Christmas magic as an ideal is hard to achieve, but Christmas magic as a simple daily experience…