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I have come to think of life not as a long road, but as a series of T-intersections. For long stretches, we travel forward assuming the road continues indefinitely. We settle into rhythm. We grow comfortable with direction. We tell ourselves that this is simply how things will be. Then, without warning, the road ends. There is no straight ahead. Only left or right. And no going back. If you hesitate too long, you hit the wall. The Difficulty of Blind Choices What makes these

I remember the moment the valley opened. We had been climbing through the Andes all morning, the road tracing ridges where clouds brushed the hillsides and the air smelled clean enough to drink. The land felt ancient and patient. Terraces, scattered farms, eucalyptus leaning into the wind. Then, as we descended, the color changed. At first it was only a glint. Pale rectangles catching the sun. I thought they were ponds, or frost. But around the next bend the truth came into f

After a snowfall in a city, the planners’ intentions briefly become visible. Sidewalks form tidy lines. Crosswalks sit where they were designed to be. The grid asserts itself. But within hours, something else appears. A narrow trench cut through a snowbank. A diagonal track across a lawn. A faint dirt line branching from the official path. Urban planners call these desire paths . The unofficial routes people create when the prescribed one does not quite work. They emerge slow

It’s impossible not to notice. The trash is everywhere. Along footpaths and medians, in temple courtyards and outside shops, at the edges of railway platforms and beneath flyovers. It gathers in corners like an afterthought. When people sweep, they often sweep into  a corner, not away . The pile becomes neater, but it doesn’t disappear. What’s striking isn’t just the volume. It’s the type . Much of it is lightweight: crinkled plastic wrappers, foil-lined packets, single-use s

In a world filled with constant accumulation, the Swedish practice of döstädning , (pronounced “doh-sted-ning”) or Swedish death cleaning , offers a refreshing perspective on decluttering.   Unlike the harsh urgency that death cleaning might imply, this method is a gentle , thoughtful , and intentional approach to tidying up.   Döstädning  is not just for yourself but for those who will one day inherit your belongings. What Is Swedish Death Cleaning? Popularized by Margareta

You notice it almost immediately in India. On temple doors. Painted in red on the backs of trucks. Drawn in chalk beside shop entrances. Pressed into marigold garlands at weddings. Stamped onto new account books at Diwali. The first time you see it, your breath catches. Because to a Western eye - to anyone of our generation, raised on the history of the Second World War - the shape is shocking. The swastika. It feels out of place, unsettling, almost impossible. And yet here i

The first thing you notice at the Amber Fort, just outside Jaipur in India, is the light. It slides across the honey-colored stone in the late afternoon, catching on carved arches and mirrored halls, softening the heat of Jaipur into something almost theatrical. The second thing you notice is the couples. They appear gradually, as if summoned by the light itself. Young men in tailored sherwanis . Young women in embroidered  lehengas  so intricately worked they seem less like

One of the small shocks of spending time in India is the queue. Or rather, the absence of one. You stand patiently, believing in the invisible contract of first come, first served. You wait. You inch forward. And then, quite suddenly, someone steps in front of you. No apology. No eye contact. No sense that anything unusual has occurred. At first, it feels rude. Even personal. A tiny moral breach. But after a while, you begin to suspect it isn’t rudeness at all. It’s somethin

We were sitting at the dinner table at a hotel in Jaipur when my mate Tony, a true blue Aussie, asked: What do you think about celebrating Australia Day? You see, it was January 26 , a public holiday in India when the population celebrates Republic Day , which marks a defining milestone in India's national journey . The day the Constitution of India came into force in 1950, formally establishing the country as a Sovereign Democratic Republic . Australia Day  is observed each

There are numbers we calculate with, and some numbers that find us . 444  belongs to the second category. You notice it on a clock - 4:44. On a license plate. On a receipt, a stock ticker, a page number you didn’t expect. At first, it feels like coincidence. Then it happens again. And again. Eventually, you stop dismissing it. Why 4 Matters at All Across cultures, the number 4  has long been associated with structure , balance , and   order . Four seasons. Four elements. Fou

Every generation leaves fingerprints on language. Some are elegant. Some are clumsy. Some are deeply irritating to anyone over the age of about forty. And every so often, a word, or in this case, a number , appears that feels less like communication and more like a shared wink. In 2025, that word was 6-7 . Or 67 . Or six sev-uhn . According to the annual Banished Words List  from Lake Superior State University, 6-7  has officially been declared cooked , 1 a slang term that i

You hear the word everywhere now. Spat out as an insult on cable news. Dropped casually at a dinner party. Used as shorthand for everything I don’t like about the world right now . And yet, for a word that gets so much airtime, woke  has become oddly hollow. More signal than substance. More heat than light. So, it’s worth pausing to ask: what does woke actually mean? Where the Word Came From Originally, woke  wasn’t political branding or culture-war theater. It came from Bla

On the 20 th  of June 1980, Australian singer/songwriter Peter Allen  debuted his new song, I Still Call Australia Home , at the opening of the Sydney Entertainment Centre. I still call Australia home- Peter Allen (Video Version 1) - YouTube Allen then went on to perform it again at the 1980 Victorian Football League Grand Final with more than 100,000 people in the Melbourne Cricket Ground as well as being broadcasted live across Australia. I Still Call Australia Home would g

To be true blue  is to be loyal , trustworthy , steady , and unaffected . No performance. No pretense. It’s about character under quiet pressure . In Australia, true blue has long been shorthand for: Mateship without sentimentality, Fairness without moral grandstanding, Equality without hierarchy, and Decency without needing applause. A true blue person doesn’t announce their values. They live them. I have been away from Australia for much of the past fifty years.   Distanc

Veterinary medicine has begun to talk about burnout openly. That, at least, is progress. We name compassion fatigue . We circulate wellness resources. We encourage resilience, balance, mindfulness, time off. And yet, year after year, the problem worsens. More veterinarians leave clinical practice. More technicians exit the field entirely. Morale erodes. Distrust deepens. The profession feels strained in ways that no yoga class or wellness webinar seems able to repair. Perhap

We all know someone who prides themselves on being sure . At first glance, certainty looks like strength. It feels like a solid floor under our feet. But certainty without adaptability  - the refusal to adjust when reality changes - is less like a solid floor and more like concrete shoes in a rising tide. That’s the heart of the idea behind the phrase: Certainty without adaptability is a dangerous illusion . Psychologically, certainty is warm and comforting. Certainty: Reduc

A close friend who I have known for many years considers me to have well-developed perfectionist tendencies . He was being polite! He recommended a book ( Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff) in which author Richard Carlson suggests that perfectionism is more often a source of quiet suffering than excellence. As I look back on a fortunate life and career, I realize that Carlson has a point. Perfectionism often disguises itself as virtue. It tells us we have high standards, that we

Facts about India are plentiful. Useful facts are earned. This piece is not about superlatives or trivia. It is about what makes the difference between merely getting through  India and truly experiencing it. Much of what follows comes from personal experience - mistakes made once, sometimes twice, but never again. Think of this as practical wisdom. India Is a Continent Masquerading as a Country India’s scale defies intuition. Distances are vast. Cultures shift dramatically

One of my favorite things to do in India is street photography. Its unlike anywhere else in the world. Colors that don’t merely decorate the scene but structure  it. Saffron, vermilion, indigo, turmeric, dust, rust, sunlight. In India, color is not esthetic garnish. It is language. It signals devotion, work, caste, celebration, grief, season, intention. For a photographer, it is irresistible. But India is not a place where you simply take  photographs. It is a place where you

People rarely speak of grace when they first leave India. They speak of exhaustion. Of noise. Of heat, crowds, delays, things that did not work the way they were supposed to. They speak of how difficult it was. How relentless. How unlike anywhere else. And then, quietly, often weeks or months later, something shifts. Grace arrives late. What Remains When the Hard Parts Fade The discomfort fades first. The frustration loosens its grip. What remains are moments so small they al