Partir c’est mourir un peu, with some sadness for saying good bye, after my six week visit, to Jeannine and family and friends in the Norfolk, Va. area. The below photographs were taken from the AmTrak train on the ride from Newport News to Washington, D.C. The weekend snowfall and the sunny day made for a very scenic trip through a beautiful and historic part of the United States.

I changed my flight out of Reagan International airport in D.C. to a two hour earlier flight out of Baltimore. Just a $3.50 (senior) train ride from the D.C. Union Station, instead of the very complicated and confusing Metro procedure to Reagan or Dulles. You might keep this in mind for your next trip on Alaska Airlines to D.C. Just like the eastward flight I had a very entertaining seat neighbor.

I am staying with Lisa and Harry in Fife and later with Rose Marie and Donovan through March with regular visits to Gig Harbor.

Update on SoloMan: All the corrections are made to the Dutch version and I expect to have it published in Holland and on Create Space and Amazon-Kindle in the next 10 days. The English version still awaits the editing of two of the seven sections.

Bald Cypress

Last Sunday I happened to listen to a program “on Being” on a Norfolk NPR station that I like to share with you. The subject was “Gratitude”, hosted  by Krista Tippett. You can listen to it: http://www.onbeing.org/program/david-steindl-rast-anatomy-of-gratitude/8361 . This was the first time I had ever heard of the program and then found that it is widely distributed. Gratitude is probably one of the most important aspects for my Being, together with Love and Forgiveness. Which I rediscovered after being brought down a few notches through my financial losses and in the nine year circumnavigation. It is incorporated in “SoloMan” just like mother wrote about her spiritual experience in the WW II concentration camps, as told in my book “The Mastmakers’ Daughters”.