• The summer I turned 20, I enrolled in a German Language program in Salzburg Austria and traveled to Europe for the first time. It was a trip that launched me on a half-century of travel and long sojourns in foreign countries.

Every author knows the highs and lows of the book tour. My baptism by fire came with the publication of my travel memoir, Circling Home: What I Learned by Living Elsewhere

The health benefits of regular yoga practice are well known, and you don’t have to do acrobatic or hot yoga to reap them. I discovered even more benefits from doing occasional yoga retreats. You get to disconnect from the noisy world and maintain a calm center for days instead of just an hour or two, and you meet like-minded people who also want a break from their busy lives. Photo: Chacala Bay, Mexico

St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe

Solo travel offers singular pleasures that I appreciate more as I get older. My brain works harder when I’m forced to navigate new cities and sites on my own. It’s like doing balance exercises to stay agile, or like playing Sudoku or solitaire to challenge your brain.

If anything could induce me to stop traveling and stay home, it wouldn’t be long security lines, delayed flights, or skyrocketing airfares. It would be the prospect of having to spend a night in another bad bed.

When we lived in Switzerland, it was easy to ignore the winter blues with visits to Christmas markets in nearby cities. Most of them were set in charming cobbled squares or along a river or lake, and they were lit by colorful lights and bonfires.

Five years ago, my husband and I moved back to the U.S. after living overseas for fifteen years. We still traveled to Europe and Africa every year to visit our daughter and friends in foreign countries, until Covid lockdowns stopped us in our tracks. Photo courtesy of Unsplash.