The Taliban is about to reach Kabul. Haiti has just been shaken by another major earthquake. And the Delta variant is ripping across the world, including much of the US. I wake to these headlines in my hotel room in Belgrade, Serbia, along with news that folk singer Nanci Griffith passed away yesterday at the…

I can’t shake the idea that I’ve dropped into a parallel universe. Last night I sat in a water taxi as the waning moon peeked through the curtains of the taxi’s window, illuminating the water outside. So very Wes Anderson. Ten minutes later I was back from Spetsis, the island I’d returned to for the…

Three weeks in and the adventure continues. Boats, islands, unrelenting heat, clear blue water, fresh fish, pre dawn alarm clocks, Aperol spritz, communal dinners, face masks, water taxis, temperature checks, international costume departments… how quickly we adapt. I can’t help but think how totally unbelievable my current reality would have seemed just one year ago.…

It’s not an ocean but a sea, the Greeks keep correcting me. Why do you call it an ocean, they ask? I’m used to oceans, I say, it’s been years since I’ve floated on my back in a sea. The Adriatic is a sea. The water tastes extra salty as I float on my back,…