Nicki Chen's Blog, page 9

Sad Thoughts on Leaving the Arboretum

It was mid-April. My daughter, my sister, and I were enjoying the afternoon walking around Seattle’s Washington Park Arboretum, a large, wooded area of 230 acres with trails and walkways cutting back and forth and up and down. We’d all been there many times and seen how it had changed over the years. And yet, […]

Pariah, a Word with a Surprising History

Do you ever hear a word over and over, and then suddenly wonder, Wait! Where did that word come from? We’re used to words that come from Latin, Greek, or French. These words are often related to other words we know. But what about pariah? I’ve been hearing the word a lot recently. “Putin has […]

“Uncovering Family Secrets” A Journey Back to Greece

In the past few years, I’ve noticed a big rise of interest in family history. Maybe it’s because of the popularity of ancestry.com and 23andme. Or maybe my friends and I are just getting older. I used to think I knew everything about my family, at least everything I cared to know. I had other […]

Spring e-Book Sale on my Book’s 1-Year Anniversary

Later this month will be the one-year anniversary of my novel, When in Vanuatu. It comes just in time for the big Shower Your Shelf With Books spring e-book sale from my publisher, She Writes Press and SparkPress. From April 1-11, all their Spring 2021 titles will be on sale for 99 cents each. So […]

The Power of Nature to Heal and Renew

One of my favorite plants is a pretty pink weed that, like all weeds, is fast-growing. In the United States, it’s called fireweed because of its ability to quickly grow and spread over a landscape that’s been devastated by fire. In Britain, it’s known as bomb weed because of its rapid colonization of bomb craters […]

The Seventh Coup Attempt

You would think that after failing six times, the plotters would have given up. But they didn’t. Maybe there’s something about the excitement of the whole thing that appeals to certain people. Whatever their reasons were, the seventh coup attempt was the biggest and most deadly of them all. It lasted for nine days, and […]

The Shortest-Longest Month

Only 28 days, occasionally 29.  A short month. But winter is long, and February sits at the tail end of that quiet, dull season … well, almost at the tail end. Here, in the Pacific Northwest, winter is a time of gray skies and rain. Not really much to complain about, I suppose—hardly any snow, […]

Year of the Tiger. What Will It Hold?

For the past two years we’ve been asking our scientists and doctors, politicians, stock-and-bond gurus, and friends to predict the future. Tell us, we demand, when will the pandemic be over? When will everything get back to “normal”? Or, what will the new normal be like? Even when they’ve dared to predict, they often have […]

Simple Pleasures in Winter

Thinking back on any trip I’ve taken, I tend to remember the small moments of pleasure: the feel of warm waves on my bare feet in the Bahamas, the taste of a special soup in Hangzhou, the pleasure of climbing sand dunes on a beach in Galicia. Small, simple pleasures are all around me, though, […]

Expectations & Resolutions, 2022

On January 2, I changed my wall calendars. I know, I don’t need to have paper calendars. I have a calendar on my phone. But I enjoy having them on my walls, and I especially enjoy putting up new calendars in January. I have three calendars this year, one in the bedroom that notes Mass […]