Jo’s Blog

Two of my oldest friends came to visit last month. We had been together in 1982 at a pivotal time in all our lives: in India, learning Hindi, before we had children . . . all three of us remember that time as magical. We met in Mussoorie (the [...]

2016 – The Year of The Wall, The Year of Exclusion, The Year of Us vs Them – is over. Thank God. 2017 can only be better. Or so we all hope. We keep that hope alive by continuing to do what we do, whether it is writing or teaching or [...]

My friend Vibha and I attend many conferences – both separately and together. They all have a lot in common. Speakers are typically over-informed and under-prepared; eager for recognition, unwilling to listen to others, convinced of their [...]

The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little. ~ Thomas Merton It’s hard to improve when everyone keeps telling you how great you already are. Walk around with a disability and everyone finds you amazing. Have a child with special [...]

I guess we all have a litmus test – a secret standard by which we measure (even judge) others. The veteran may wonder how that young guy – so macho and cocky – would behave in battle. The grandmother wants to know how that girl [...]

Coming around the corner to my home the other day (and imagine! I had my camera out and ready), I spotted these two little girls busy at work plucking flowers from the bush that hangs over our boundary wall. They were so intent on their task [...]

We lost this little girl yesterday. How careless it sounds, as if we had misplaced her; as if we were busy doing other things, then turned around and found she had vanished. And of course, it wasn’t like that at all. Siddhika had been [...]