TEN ESSENTIALS FOR AUTUMN TRAVEL TO SPAIN By Lu Sobredo The warm weather hasn’t completely waned, but there are signs of the new season including a little chill in the early morning air. As of September 22, 2021, North America is officially into autumn and I am thrilled! A year and half of waiting for COVID 19 infection cases to decline in the U.S. and other parts of the world has been challenging. But survived, I did! So did my circle of friends and family. I feel for those who did suffer much and lost loved ones or colleagues to the indiscriminatory virus. Diligent adherence to health protocols have helped and I wished many more would take the risks seriously by getting vaccinated, continuing to mask up and limit exposure by distancing or gathering responsibly in small crowds. I feel fortunate to qualify in the late summer for a third vaccine. Being someone diagnosed with an autoimmune illness renders me high risk to infection. On August 31, 2021 I walked into a pharmacy and took con

  AT A CAFÉ IN THE MORNING By Lu Sobredo Staring into space not from disinterest.  I am enthralled by the liveliness  of this place. Masked women gesturing with hands and fingers  pointed to their chests signaling  sincerity, I suppose—one to the other listening intently then reciprocating with cupped hands as though emphasizing a response. Now their heads bobbed front to back as if in a dance, their laughter seems to croon along with the music piped through the Café walls. The sun, victorious against the morning fog, shines through the expanse of the glass window, its brightness rested on my son’s dark brown hair accentuated by the sun-induced  reddish tint. The highlighted head of hair reminded me of my mother’s, my son’s maternal grandmother he has only met  through stories. Storytelling is central to my young years, ancestral stories heard and stored in a cup of tea  or a treasure box as told lovingly by aunties, their mothers, granduncles and my son hears them lovingly repeated fr