Columns

This week we closed our local schools for a holiday, something we do just a few other times during each school year. On Labor Day we honor America’s workers and common man. Thanksgiving and Christmas are holidays for families to gather, give thanks and share spiritual messages.

I have a beef. Well, not really a beef, as I am trying to cut down on red meat; call it a “peeve.” Not a “pet” peeve, because I really don’t see this peeve as soft, cuddly and cute. My big peeve is this: these new-fangled chip bags that are impossible to open without a degree from MIT.

I don’t know if you are familiar with the term “hygge,” which is pronounced “hue-guh.” It is a Danish word that captures a feeling of contentment or coziness – alone or with friends, at home or out and about – that strikes one as special and charming. It’s sort of a gathered ‘round the hearth feeling … a safely out of the storm feeling… at peace with yourself and the world.

Community sing-along

Barn Dance Feb. 10

North County gardeners are in for a treat: top garden author and web publisher Steve Albert is the speaker at the free Jan. 16 meeting of the Windsor Garden Club.

For the first time in many years I made a New Year’s resolution. I promised myself that no matter what, I would faithfully attend yoga classes twice a week. I believe that a rested Mom is a better Mom, a win-win for myself and my two teenagers.

Pot dangers

Swiss theologian Emily Brunner, in a provocative little book called “Faith, Hope, and Love,” proposes a kind of timeline by which to apprehend these three spiritual principles. He sees faith relating to the past, hope relating to the future and love centered in the present.

Don’t look now, but is the whole state of California at risk of splitting off from the rest of America? We don’t mean from a cataclysmic earthquake along the San Andreas Fault line but from a political hailstorm that dominates all the lands and other states east of the Sierras?