Living the Sweet Life: Music Gets a Stage of Its Own

Music has always been a large part of my life. Growing up in North Carolina, we never left for a vacation without packing my Daddy’s guitar, a mandolin and a harmonica. We would head to the mountains and sit on the porch overlooking the Blue Ridge Parkway and set about to makin’ music, mostly hymns and...

Living the Sweet Life: Raising a Young Man

Each of us as parents are faced with many challenges. For some, it is a child born to us that has from the very moment of his or her existence a determination to explore and a refusal to listen. Others still have the task of facing learning and other challenges. I have had the blessing of being given a son...

Living the Sweet Life: Learning Life from an Angel

I went to North Carolina several years ago, and I visited my mother’s best friend Ellen. She welcomed James Edward and I in for some sausage balls and aioli in what we call “the big house.” While sitting there, I watched James Edward gazing at the walls and realized that in some uncanny ways, “the...

Living the Sweet Life: Change is Hard

Let it be known that I do not like change! Let me remind you that I have worn the same wig since 1994 when I found it in Dallas. I fell in love with the ease of snapping it on my head and looking perfectly ready for anything. It also reminded me of my mother, who was killed when I was eight in an auto-train...

Living the Sweet Life: A Day Well Spent

My dear friends, promise me that during this lovely new year, you will spend time with some “old folks” and little children, for it is with their company that you will gain the most knowledge concerning living a sweet and fulfilled life. Perhaps I know this having been raised by “old folks,” and...

Living the Sweet Life: A Few Years in Review

How many of you are sitting with your presents wrapped and your hot chocolate in hand wondering like me, how did 2018 fly by so fast? I am sure I am not alone in my feelings, and as each year passes more quickly, I find myself feeling quite old.  I typically write down a list of things to accomplish in...