Search Results.

Merchants Keep the Vibe Alive  I love to walk downtown and in the process have found unique stores, restaurants and favored backstreet routes that supply that sense of communion with our special town. Many favorite places have disappeared since I became a part of this community...

Resilience   The holiday season has officially started. In our fast-paced society, it has become more difficult to let down and enjoy the small pause points that come as a result of getting involved in the art of celebration, whether religious or secular. This upcoming...

Grace and Grit      Two of my brothers and one of my sisters, their spouses and families have all been directly impacted by the tragedy in Houston. Even the home owned by my parents, plus the neighborhood that holds all my younger siblings’ growing up memories, is five feet...

Grace and Grit      Two of my brothers and one of my sisters, their spouses and families have all been directly impacted by the tragedy in Houston. Even the home owned by my parents, plus the neighborhood that holds all my younger siblings’ growing up memories, is five feet under...

It’s About Timely    Time seems to have gotten into the habit of speeding. In fact, I suspect it has been taking professional driving lessons and is using my weekdays as time to practice. It is Monday and then about 20 hours later it is Friday. This has been going on for quite a...

If you’re lucky enough to be invited to Barbara Crane’s house for dinner, you’ll be greeted warmly by a hostess born into the art of Southern hospitality, before being seated at an elegant table set with china and crystal from her collection.

Service Nurtures Loyalty for Local Merchants George Weiss wrote a letter to the editor last week that shared pertinent research and also let us know that CVS has as their motto: “Lead with Love.” Thanks George. Your letter solidified my strong opposition to having CVS...

A Father’s Day Tribute Our father’s live forever in our consciousness. Their interactions with us crucially impact our sense of self and how we interpret our place in the world. The role of father was often ill defined in the past as a shadow-figure, the head of...

The Dynamics of Loss Many of us who live here are currently mourning the loss of Stu Saffer who was the original creator of the Laguna Beach Independent and who went on to create the successful on-line newspaper, Stu News Laguna. We are so fortunate here in Laguna Beach to have...

Rediscover the Magic   Have you lost your feeling of connection with yourself, your familial relationships or your friendships? If that is happening, what is the underlying cause? Yes, there could be many surface reasons. You could be disappointed, fatigued or bored. Maybe...

Emotional Etiquette   Do you have friends or relatives that you don’t like talking to because they interrupt, invalidate, shut you down, give you quick and useless bits of unsolicited advice and, to sum it all up, are lousy listeners, emotionally violating, aggressively...

Core Competence  A hallmark of personal competence is the ability to make discerning choices. Choosing well requires the mental work of uncovering, discovering and committing to taking right actions that represent our best efforts to resolve the issues that are demanding our...

Irish Eyes Are Smiling The cause of my happy eyes isn’t because of St Patrick’s Day this year. A few weeks ago, I discovered the book “The Power Behind Your Eyes.” It talks of the need to rest our eyes, taking periodic time outs from the task of looking, so that we...

Nothing Personal   Are you familiar with the term Machiavellianism? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is defined as “the employment of cunning and duplicity in state craft or general conduct.” In psychology, it is used to describe a person’s tendency to deceive and...

The Personal is Political  Carol Hanish’s essay written in 1970 questioned whether women’s consciousness-raising groups were a useful part of the political women’s movement. In the piece named “The Personal is Political” Hanish said that coming to a...