Cellist Yo Yo Ma says he isn't a brave man, that he is scared much of the time.  "But," he adds, "I must like being scared," since he keeps on doing things he fears. Ma is one of the 5 winners of the Kennedy Center Honors for 2011, the 34th annual presentation of this award for lifetime […] Read More

It's  the season of air-borne sleighs and wingless flying deer and other miracles.  Might be a good time to ease off the more mundane magic of the Internet.  Just for a bit? A day? (my computer has started behaving badly as I write this)  I ran across this tropical image of the prayerful take-a-break spirit at Lost […] Read More

I had a mini-crisis — of courage/honesty/boldness, etc. —  this week over how to rank books by friends and clients on Goodreads.com.   The way it works:  on this site, people give stars to books they've read , ratings which can work as recommendations or warnings for other readers of similar tastes.  One star means "didn't […] Read More

One notably bold move in my recent Costa Rican adventure:     My guide on a wildlife-watching river float pulled over to shore, leaped onto the bank, thrashed around in the more than knee-deep lush green tangle, and came back to the raft holding a poison dart frog.  These brilliant little creatures are actually poison to touch.  It's not just a […] Read More

What are the holidays like when you're celebrating with someone who is severely disabled?   How do you shop for someone who can use very little? My friend, Lena Rivkin, a visual artist and graphologist in LA, knows a lot about this situation.  "When you have a sibling who cannot speak, make direct eye contact or […] Read More

Fresh out of the Costa Rican rainforest, I have a new take on the idea that life is a jungle. I'm now seeing it as a positive. Jungles (a word I use pretty much interchangeably with rainforest) are full of extravagant, gorgeous life. Plants in the tropical rainforest grow enormous in the effort to catch […] Read More

Off for a bit of volcano watching in the mountains of northern Costa Rica.  The promo for the little hotel says that every room looks out on the live Arenal volcano and that lava glows up there in the night.  Can't wait.  I may be hard to reach for a few days.  Read More

  Bold or simply silly?  Jumping a yellow Police Line Do Not Cross tape to get this shot of Colin Firth making a movie six blocks from  my office. What do you think?   For truly fabulous photos of the occasion, visit Raleigh Record for Karen Tam's shots. Read More

Vortex hunting is a tricky business.  I dashed around downtown Asheville, NC, Saturday afternoon asking directions to one of these ancient New Age phenoms.  I didn't find one that day, though I did hear a wonderful account by the man behind the counter at Gaea Gifts about hiking to a vortex site near Boone, NC, sitting between the water and the […] Read More

A few of us here in the NC mountains had planned a 7-mile hike today along the bank of the French Broad River.  But it rained.  Some folks went out in the afternoon for an abbreviated version.  The rest of us worked.  Seems like two or maybe three weeks since we arrived.  Life has settled into a […] Read More