As health officials dealing with the swine flu outbreak are trying to walk a line between informing and alarming, I--as a recipient of their reports and warnings and an American living in Mexico--try to find the proper balance between sensible caution and overreaction. It's not easy. I seem to swing...

The best Christmas present I received this year came in the tear-drop form of a candle flame.

I was at a posada in my neighborhood in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. It's a mixed neighborhood -- some ex-pats like my family but mostly large Mexican broods...

When I told my husband about the worker trampled by frenzied Wal-Mart shoppers on Friday morning, he thought it was a joke. "That sounds like some parody," he said. "What station were you watching? Comedy Central?"

I insisted it was real. Googling the incident, I showed him that even...

"Come to Montana," a friend living in Bozeman told me when she heard my husband and I are planning to move back to the States next spring after three years in Mexico. "We almost went blue; you could help put us over the edge next time."

"We would be thrilled...

"Obamanos" is a strange bit of political Spanglish, often seen in the past few months on bumper stickers in states with large Hispanic populations. The term translates -- in essence, not literally -- to "let's go Obama."

This has been the general spirit in San Miguel...

After sitting out most of the election season at my home in Mexico, I was happy to return to the States last week to witness the political hoo-ha for myself. I was thrilled to see about four Obama signs in upstate New York for every McCain placard. I was encouraged...

During this election season, as partisan acrimony is as intense as the ozone-less Antarctic sun, I'm trying desperately to remember something I learned during the 10 years I lived in rural Texas: How to open my mind.

After 14 years in Manhattan and Austin, I arrived in Blanco, Texas (population...

I'm taking my cues from Barack Obama. I'm staying above the fray.

Obama is not getting in the mud with Mccain and Palin and all those who have been driven to act like an Islamist mob that has seen cartoons of Mohammad, driven into such a frenzy that, according...

Yesterday I had an inkling of the deep agitation I felt on September 11th, 2001. That feeling that the world had gone wildly awry and life would never be the same again.

I hope that I'm over-reacting to the financial crisis, since certainly no one has died from the...

At first I thought I wouldn't be able to watch Friday's debate at all. But as it turned out, I felt as if I watched it with the whole world.

By the time I realized the date of the first debate, my family and I had already planned to spend...

Among the worst words you can apply to someone in a relationship is any inflection of the verb "to settle," as in "he settled by marrying her." To have the word "settled" used anywhere near your name connotes that you gave up your soul, your heart or your ideals to...

I'm starting to hear it again. In blogs, in e-mails from friends: "If the Republicans win in November, I'm leaving the country."

I said the same thing in 2000, but my husband calmed me down after Bush "won" with this: "The country survived Nixon, for God's sake. How bad...