Dear friends, welcome to Blog Post number one!  The idea of a blog was born in an “I’ve had it!” moment with social media, when I found myself engaged in a frustrating exchange of short comments with someone I didn’t even know (a friend of a friend).  I realized right then that nothing worth discussing (or even thinking about) can be dealt with in that type of format. Most issues I care about are complex and nuanced, and deserve more thought and more civility than Facebook brings out in us, or at least in me.

What will I offer up to you?  I’ve named the blog Linda’s Sojourns, so one area of interest will be travels.  In particular, I want to give thought to the spirituality of travel. How does a particular place speak to us?  Who lives there, and what are they really like? How does the culture/history/landscape of a place call us to greater understanding?  How do those we meet on our journeys affect us, change our attitudes, give us inspiration? What about a particular place feeds our souls?  Through what mystery does that happen?

Sojourns are not just physical travel.  We also have sojourns of the mind, in which our brain takes off down a path and we don’t know where it’s headed.  I hope my blog will take me (and you) on some of those treks. Perhaps by clearing a path our brains will give us insights that we were not expecting.  

I’ve spent most of my adult life in the field of diplomacy, so I will devote some of my posts to aspects of that life.  First of all, what the heck is a diplomat and what do we do? And then, I hope to comment on foreign policy issues as they come to mind or to public attention.  

And I’m certain that I will find some public policy issues irresistible.  So much that we see or read in the news is presented with arrogance, intolerance, and pettiness.  I hope to offer my thoughts and opinions with respect and with the knowledge that we each have viewpoints that emerge from our own life experiences and our unique humanity.  

Come journey with me!