My inventive and creative brother Franc Payne has taken a little old house on Core Sound, behind the North Carolina Outer Banks, and turned it into a magic cottage with big screened porches. He did it himself on weekends over a couple of years. It’s delightful (I painted a couple of doors myself) and situated […] Read More

An event high on my scale of domestic boldness: this afternoon Husband Bob and I moved our fridge and cleaned the coils in the back in the hopes that this will take care of a popsicle crisis. I am devoted to consuming coconut popsicles (up to three a day) of the Whole Foods house brand […] Read More

As I’ve often mentioned here, I have a K&W cafeteria lunch once a month with half a dozen people with metaphysical interests: Mystic Pizza. Today was the day and here’s the report from the lunchtime mystics (three of whom are pictured below.)*Instead of flight or fight in a moment of confrontation, try gently shifting your […] Read More

Just came from the final celebration of my 61st Jubilee. It was the winter-quarter birthday brunch of six buddies who have been celebrating our aging since most of us were in our twenties. One gift I received was particularly bold and imaginative: fresh eggs from Stephanie’s chickens. She keeps them in her mid-town backyard, as […] Read More

Last night Husband Bob and I went to see a live TV showing of Prairie Home Companion at a local movie theatre: a perfect celebration of Bob’s 68th birthday yesterday. It was sublimely good and completely heart-warming: a winning combo that Garrison Keillor produces weekly without fail. Here’s why I mention him again on a […] Read More

Recently I decided to sell some clothes on consignment. In the past I’ve taken my physically or emotionally outgrown items to the Goodwill. This new possibility felt to me a small enticing adventure. I grew up in the midst of the clothing business. My parents owned stores in Wilmington, NC. And I feel I know […] Read More

Still snowy here in the unaccustomed South, and we each have to make the decision about when it’s safe to drive. It varies, of course, with the vehicle and the address. To get from my house to a paved and cleared road, requires covering the long downhill curving driveway with woods on either side, followed […] Read More

We have the rare pleasure here of snow these last few days. It was two and a half days before I could get from our house on a hilly dirt road through woods to the main road. So I’ve had a cosy few days, with a little cross-country skiing, up until the bindings broke on […] Read More

This afternoon I heard for the first time about how a Japanese business management technique can be usefully adapted to making positive changes in one’s life. Like lightning, I rushed to Google this new word: kaizen. The basic idea, as explained in One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer, […] Read More

If you’re needing an inspiring role model, read the Wired Magazine career history of Avatar director James Cameron. What a combo of persistence, courage, and inventiveness! But to make that feel real and encouraging, I always need to know the details. Thirty-three years ago, he was a young truck driver who went to see Star […] Read More