Alone, these three words are enough to spark debates and arguments that will continue into the wee hours of the morning. Depending upon who you aretalking to, you may be conversing for months. Years. I am writing because, last Sunday night left something of a bittersweet taste in my mouth: sweet, in...

I recently drove from Los Angeles to Portland with my friend and her two small children.  We sang silly songs, ate snacks and read a stack of children’s books.  It was a fun adventure, until we were about 300 miles from home, and her son informed me that it was “taking too long.” “Are we there...

In 1883, Emma Lazarus, a young American woman from a wealthy Jewish family, wrote a sonnet called, “The New Colossus.” Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is...

The Kava plant grows in southeast Asia and the islands of the south Pacific. Pacific Islanders have known about its calming properties for centuries. They use the plant in beverage form to treat anxiety and insomnia. It’s also popular with tourists trying to relax into a vacation. One benefit of Kava...

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act, and by 1831 the first of five Native American tribes was uprooted from its homeland in Georgia and forced to walk 1,000 miles to a barren territory we now call Oklahoma.  Most of them walked the entire distance without shoes or moccasins...