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    Celebrating Earth Day

    Experiencing Earth Day last week in Switzerland was striking to me. There wasn’t much talk. There wasn’t much of a fuss. So much so that if it hadn’t been for my boy’s school and Facebook, I would have missed it completely. I say that not because I don’t care about the earth but because experiencing Earth Day in Switzerland is more of a daily way of life and less about something to be used for political power, making a point, or making a lot of money. There is something engrained in the Swiss culture that respects the environment and, therefore, respects your neighbor’s environment as much. It is not necessarily…

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    The Great Adventure

    Oh, the cravings of adventure. On one level, our family is exactly two months into our new adventure living in Switzerland. Individually, my two boys are in the midst of the “great adventure” of their lives. Living here is part of this “great adventure” as boys. There is undoubtedly something to be said about boys’ need for adventure. It is engrained within us. From infancy, boys seem to crave kicking rocks down the road, climbing trees, running instead of walking, and/or making anything into a weapon. “Men are often aggressive. They seem to have an inborn need to fight, to put themselves in conflict with the outer world in order to…

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    Seeing the Beautiful

    On the one hand, they say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” On the other hand, beauty is not as subjective as it seems. Maybe beauty is more about the ability to see or not. In other words, beauty is everywhere and in everything. My ability to recognize this in my life is somehow connected to joy. This makes me think then, what helps me to see? Switzerland is beautiful beyond words. The landscapes and mountains are indescribable—so much so that pictures do not do them justice. One result of witnessing this kind of beauty is that it captivates you, draws you in, and then sends you out…

  • Blog,  Random Places We Go (Photos)

    Maundy Thursday

    “The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love; It signifies Love, it produces Love.” – St. Thomas Aquinas (This painting is called “Last Supper” and is located in the Church of St. Mary of the Angels (Chiesa Santa Maria degli Angioli) in Lugano, Switzerland.  Milanese Bernardino Luini painted it, sometimes called the “Raphael of the North”, for his art’s gentle expressions and calm beauty. We spent Easter Weekend (and the Paschal Triduum) in Lugano, Switzerland.)