(These are excerpts—click on the title to view the whole piece!)
 

The Pied Piper of Damascus

I never thought about gold much until I lived in the Middle East, where women safely walk through alleys and poor neighborhoods wearing hundreds of dollars worth of it. It's such gorgeous stuff. Perfect for the nomad.
 

Through the Looking Glass

She showed me that old, half-sewn collar with a snip in one side. Keeping it, she said, was her way to remember that some things just couldn't be fixed, that she had to take care and sew it right the first time. There was no room for mistakes. Fingering that hole in the fabric, she also told me that she kept it to remember her father.