Image credit: Gina Greenlee, Pinterest Mary said, “you need grounding before you take this big trip around the world .” So, she coached me to “create-destroy-recreate” art pieces for 30 consecutive days in the months leading up to the trip. Minimal instruction, no elaborate context, only “ Try it and see what happens. ” Image credit: Gina Greenlee, quick fashion magazine collage Always playing with art , I was open to possibility in the moment without having to know what came

Image Credit: Gina Greenlee, paint, ink, collage For more of my take on growing up on New York City’s Lower East Side: Black and Blintzes: Growing Up Not Quite Jewish on the Lower East Side Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments in New York Hush Life, a novel No Tears for Frankie: A Memoir on the Life of an Essay ◊ ◊ ◊ Take a YouTube tour of my hometown. The background song is the 1977 hit Native New Yorker , performed by Odyssey . The lyrics, shared in this

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun. Katharine Hepburn Heavy into shopping at the markets in Jaipur, India, I realized I was...

A journey is like a marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you can control it. John Steinbeck I visited the port city of...

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There is a time when we must firmly choose the course which we will follow or the endless drift of events will make the decision for us. ...

What do I imagine would happen if I responded to pain with softness and vulnerability instead of self-recriminations about how I am not...

In 2008, I independently produced the audio version of my third book, Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments on the Road,...

…practice this definition of trust: the willingness to take steps while simultaneously waiting for “instructions.” ◊ ◊ ◊ Postcards and...

◊ ◊ ◊ If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. Thomas Edison ◊ ◊ ◊ On day 13 of a 14-day...

There are more truths in 24 hours of a life than in all the philosophies. Raoul Vaneigem I arrived in Cairns, Australia, during early...

In December 1993, I had been up for an hour on Christmas morning before I realized, Today’s my birthday. I was in Bikaner, a desert town...

When I tell people that I’ve traveled to Nepal, they ask me with a straight face if I climbed Mount Everest. And I think, You’ve got to...

The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that...

Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time. Leo Buscaglia After enjoying a New Year’s Eve dinner at Nepal’s...

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it. Lena Horne Two New Zealand airlines sent me ping-ponging between their...

Motor scooters have been my preferred mode of transport in India, Bali, French Polynesia, Vietnam and the Caribbean. It’s one of my...

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. Helen Keller In the...

In 1998 I was on the way back to my hotel from London’s Piccadilly Circus when I met a charming woman on the Underground. She was a...

Gina Greenlee, Costa del Sol, Spain, 2000 Ten years ago when I began the journey of writing Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo...