Geography and DNA

Geography and DNA

In my Armenian family memoir, there’s a chapter titled “This Land is Whose Land.” Doing research, I’d contact other Armenians with questions and they’d write back referring to Armenia while I kept saying my family was from Turkey. As this persisted, I grew confused....
A Happy Family

A Happy Family

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” – Leo Tolstoy While I’ve written essays and I’m working on a family memoir about my paternal family, I’ve written almost nothing about my maternal family. How does one...
Please Call Your Senators

Please Call Your Senators

Daylight Savings vs. Standard Time Most people agree we should stop the twice a year time changes. If you’ve read my prior blogs, you know I feel strongly about staying on standard time. Please read this important piece by Your Local Epidemiologist that shows...
Where I’m From

Where I’m From

If you were asked to write about your childhood, grounded in place and sensory detail, what would you write? On which aspects of your childhood would you focus? Which family idiosyncrasies would you describe?  In 1993, George Ella Lyon published her poem, “Where...
Birds and Books

Birds and Books

In my February 2025 blog, “Delights and Joys,” I wrote about my Daily Delights journal. The journal rests on my nightstand and every night I write in it one or a few things that delighted me that day. Many of my daily delights are creatures and most of those creatures...
How Long?

How Long?

A friend recently inquired about my writing. I’m always happy to be asked how my writing is going and on this day the work had gone especially well and I was excited to share that news. I had started a new chapter in my Armenian family memoir, a chapter that, for a...