Surfer women are the subject and the stars of a charming and inspiring new movie I went to see last night. "Dear & Yonder: Daring Stories of Ladies United by the Sea" had its Pittsboro, North Carolina premiere at Pittsboro General Store Cafe. This inland village(pop.2525), 20 minutes from my house, is where one of […] Read More

From Success Magazine this month: “When is the last time you rewarded yourself for failing? Probably never. Instead of mentally punishing yourself for not succeeding, buy yourself an ice cream cone and say, ‘Great job! I’m one step closer to success!” On the surface this sounds silly, but celebrating failure is one of the best […] Read More

A young couple who live down the other fork of my dirt road had a baby a few weeks ago. Their first one died in infancy a couple of years ago and it was very, very hard. I’m so proud of them and their courage for starting again. They have one huge celebratory blue bow […] Read More

I’m watching a friend go through a crisis and handle it in a manner that is thoughtful and purposeful and yet emotionally in touch. This same friend gets into a fury if she misplaces her sunglasses. I’m impressed. And I’m also encouraged by the thought that real trouble may call up resources we didn’t know […] Read More

Hyper-alive today. Partly the blue sky and October air. Mainly it’s being reminded by the waiting-for-news friend I posted about yesterday and then seeing last night another pal who is increasingly disabled. I’m worried for both of them and yet overwhelmingly glad we’re all three alive. And one more thing, I just left the reunion […] Read More

A buddy got some worrisome news. And now has the anxiety of waiting for more info. Maybe the worrisome-news category of events exists to put things like email problems into perspective, for all concerned. However, I can easily conceive of a universe in which there’s never a bad biopsy and no vexing computer problems either. […] Read More

An English professor of my acquaintance was teaching a freshmen class on a day that fell on Halloween. She assumed that surely the students would dress for the occasion. And so she rigged out in witch regalia, including silver mask and tall blue diaphanous cone hat. None of the students dressed up. She swears that […] Read More

Standing in line at lunch today at one of the hip green lite fast-food places called Evo’s, waiting for my low-fat chocolate shake, I picked up one of their hip magazines, Paste, which carries the slogan: “Signs of Life in Music, Film, and Culture.” “African Queen” was the story I started browsing, and then seriously […] Read More

Do you have your Halloween costume yet? I found mine by happy accident a couple weeks ago at a local Goodwill. I’d already been invited to a party. And then a few days later what do I see on one of the acres of racks but a sparkling floor-length red number, tagged Sultry Devil. It […] Read More

Flower arranging once seemed to me an impossible art. That was back when I tried to make the posies fall into the places I had in mind. I gave that up. Now I let the stems pretty much have their way. And I put in some of most everything that’s blooming. This approach produces a […] Read More