Two staircases I came across while wandering Belgrade.

One climbs toward a patch of light. The other disappears into shadow.

They remind me that thresholds are rarely flat places.

More often they’re a series of uncertain steps, forward or back. Up or down.

Some days I feel as though I’ve climbed a few steps. Other days I discover I’ve wandered back down without realizing it.

Perhaps that’s simply how change works. We don’t arrive all at once. We inch forward, pause to catch our breath, occasionally retreat, then begin again. Only much later, with the mercy of hindsight, do we realize

we’ve been climbing all along.

The final photograph is the view through our apartment back door. The bamboo fence obscures the trees beyond, and I catch myself wishing it weren’t there.

Then I remember the door is open.

Maybe that’s enough for today.

Author Life

Two of my favorite authors have new novels arriving!

Lawrence Osborne’s Children of Wolves returns to the morally ambiguous world he writes so brilliantly, this time set against the glittering backdrop of Turkey and Istanbul. Téa Obreht’s Sunrise spans more than a century, weaving together a Wyoming ghost town, the Old West, and the kind of folklore-infused storytelling that first captivated me in The Tiger’s Wife. Both are already on my pre-order list, and I have a feeling they’ll be worth the wait.