As 2024 turns into 2025…
“I don’t know how I am going to face this next year,” a friend told me recently. She is not the only one with a heavy heart. For many people I know, this new year comes with a sense of apprehension. In addition to personal crises and natural disasters, the election with its tensions and […]
News Flash
That little toy war dog just keeps winning awards! Dear Friends, I am thrilled to share that my memoir When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew was just recognized a winner in the categories of both Memoir and Young Adult Non-Fiction by the NYC Big Book Award. Many of you […]
Audiobook Now Available
I am thrilled to announce that my memoir, When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew, is now available in audio format. The audiobook is narrated by radio host, Jane Mickelson, a Pacifica Graduate Institute alumna.
A New Year’s Eve Miracle
May the New Year bring the “miracle” you wish for. We walked with deliberate steps. Placed our feet with care on the slippery surface of the ice-covered sidewalks and bridges of our Nazi-occupied town. Held on to each other tight, so not to slip and fall into the dark canal, where thin ice would not […]
Easter reflections in the time of COVID-19
I have found one of the lovely surprises about growing old if you are lucky, is that you become part of a web of friends, colleagues and family members who span the planet. Over the years they stretch your mind and enrich your life by their diverse cultural lifestyles, beliefs and rituals, and personal myths. At Easter, […]
A Mother’s New Year’s Wish and Intention
A Mother’s New Year’s Wish and Intention On December 31, 1960, I “missed a great New Year’s Eve party,” so my then-husband told me, because I had just given birth to our second child, my son Grant, in Adelaide, Australia. I assure one and all, that the 9 lb. 10 oz. baby boy was worth missing any […]
Toy Dogs and Moons Give Thanks
It takes one person to tell her story. It takes a village to hear its meaning and give it wings. As we approach this North American Holiday of Thanksgiving, I want to express my deep gratitude for my amazing global community of family, friends, colleagues, neighbors and so many others who have supported and encouraged me […]
Sharing Our Stories
Shining a Light (Published in Women Writers, Women‘s Books, August 27, 2019.) From the time that I was a little girl curled up on my father’s lap, enchanted by his bedtime stories of fairy-tale heroes and heroines, and mythic far-away places where magical gods and goddesses could morph into animal shapes at will, I have […]
Childhood revisited:
My memoir about my childhood in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during WWII was released on August 27. But it’s not just my story. It’s the story of every child who experiences violence, deprivation, and bigotry. As we adults consume our planet’s resources and divide human beings because of the color of our skin or the deities we […]
A Mother’s “Foolish Idealism”
This week a daughter in Poway buried her mother, a victim of yet another vicious hate-fueled shooting on a House of Worship. As we send cards and flowers, and make phone calls and visits to our mothers on Mother’s Day, she will be grieving instead. And, at age eighty, I suddenly miss my own mother, a strong […]