From sunrise to sunset of 2025, what a year this has been. I want to share some photos from this past year. Morocco, the Sahara Desert, a family visit, a surgery gone wrong, and my writing adventures. With health issues mostly behind me, I’m ready for more adventure. Wishing you and yours a wonderful New…Read more »
Category: Travel
Family: Formed, Found, and Chosen; Moroccan Nomads
My poem, Curiosity and Wonder was selected for publication in early 2026 in an anthology of short stories and poems by several local authors. The submission was based on the theme Family: Formed, Found, and Chosen, in response to the memoir Solito by Javier Zamora, which tells the story of a nine-year-old child making his…Read more »
From Illness to Inspiration: Crafting My Second Memoir
Several weeks ago, I developed community-acquired pneumonia, AKA walking pneumonia. I lay weeks on the couch, listless, weak, with no appetite. My family doctor tried diligently to avert it. When it developed into a bacterium, the antibiotics finally worked. But until I fully recovered, I couldn’t shut my mind off. Over the days and weeks,…Read more »
Indelible Morocco: My Hammam Experience
Posted by in Travel Even though it’s been months since I returned from Morocco in December 2024, the fond memories of that country and its people have left an indelible mark I won’t easily forget. I wrote about the sheep migration in an earlier blog. But there was so much more. In several instances, it seemed that life stood…Read more »
Moroccan Sheep Migration: A Nomadic Tradition
Posted by in Travel (Click on the two video links below) Our OAT Tour (Overseas Adventure Tour) was winding through the mid-Atlas Mountains of Morocco in 2024 when our guide, Mohamed told our driver to stop the bus and said with excitement, “Come and look!” Mohamed is Amazigh or Berber as Westerners call the indigenous people. (Amazigh is their…Read more »
Sunrise, Sunset 2024
As this rosy sunrise brought us 2024, much has happened in our lives and around the world. But as the sun sets this December, I want to end with photos taken throughout the year. I have written about some of the images with others in upcoming blogs. Enjoy, and I wish you a healthy and splendid…Read more »
No Gifts Opened at Christmas
Posted by in Pink Flamingos, Travel In recent months Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon bombed each other only a few miles from my Lebanese family. At this moment there is a ceasefire agreement. This is a Christmas Story that happened in December 2022 during a peaceful time in Lebanon with its struggling economy. I found a safe window of travel to…Read more »
Whirling Dervishes of Turkey: “Ritual of Sema”
Posted by in Travel, Uncategorized Some of us have heard of these mesmerizing men who twirl for hours in long white skirts. I wanted to learn more. My OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel) to Turkey in 2023 included a demonstration of this dance; a Sufi tradition (Muslim religious figures akin to monks) that involves spinning faster and faster to summon the…Read more »
Camel Caravans in Turkey
Posted by in Travel I traveled to Turkey for the first time in June 2023. So many fascinating experiences caught my fancy. But this one stood out as the cousin to our interstate truck stops or roadside inns in America. Camel caravan rest stops –caravanserais– were created before gasoline, diesel, big-rig trucks, and motor homes. The journeys of merchants and their animal…Read more »
The Wonders of Jordan & Egypt
Posted by in Travel (Hot air balloon sunrise tour over the Nile) I am tardy in posting this blog about one of the most amazing trips that I took in 2022. I wrote a detailed narrative with photos and YouTube videos for friends and family about a year ago. Instead of rewriting it for my web followers, I will…Read more »
Susan E. Greisen 