One early morning last week, I received this message from Irina who lives in Ukraine:
“Nina, I’ve been sick for a long time and I am taking a medicine with a sedative, and it makes me feel like a veg...
Why do we travel? What pushes us to fly for many hours, sometimes around the whole world?
Before any trip my heart always beats joyfully and I can’t fell asleep in anticipation of something unusual, n...
In my last article, I wrote about my six-day visit to a remote Buddhist monastery in Northern Thailand last month.
When I first read the monastery schedule I was stunned: 18 hours of fasting, 8 hours ...
It was five o’clock in the morning. I was alone.
I awoke and put on my rough, white linen robe. I walked out onto the wooden planks of my small hut.
Thick morning fog ebbed through the mountains in a...
Even demons become kinder if they are fed on time and treated well.
I learnt this last week, when we attended a service at a small Hindu temple in the remote mountains of western Bali.
My husband, Bi...
I flew with my husband to the rural north of Thailand, late at night. We awoke in the morning in the cool air of the highlands. The streets were pleasantly chaotic with vendors, and we heard the laugh...
New Year’s Eve for Russian people is the most important holiday of the year.
The table in each household is crammed with food, drinks and treats. Russian women start preparing for this celebration we...
What a special and wonderful time of the year, filled with both magic and kindness.
I love the smell of nutmeg, cinnamon and pine needles, the sparkle of decorations and flickering lights, and the lo...
I am regularly asked, “How can I find my true self?”
I often begin a new path when I start to feel something in my life is going wrong, realising that this is not the way I want to live.
At these mo...
Thursday night is rehearsal time for the Coral Beats percussion group. It is two hours of positive and vigorous energy for the mind and body. After chatting, exchanging news, hugging and laughing toge...
