Living the Sweet Life: Floriography

There’s lots of reasons we send flowers, usually for a celebration of a holiday or season, and in all cases when someone dies. Flowers signify a gesture of caring and thoughtfulness, but did you know each flower has historical heritage tracing back specific meanings for both the sender and the...

Living the Sweet Life: The Therapy Journal

Have you ever kept a diary? I remember getting those cute little ones that had a lock and key back through my teen years. I would actually use mine to make lists and goals for myself and sometimes jot down stuff that I did not want to forget. In college I had to keep a sketch journal for my art classes, and...

Living the Sweet Life: #dosomethingfornothing

Okay my sweet readers, this month what we are going to discuss is not anything new, but it sure is necessary. Morgan Freeman is one of my mentors. He has created a life of multi-prenuership as an actor, advocate and fantastic person. He uses his influence to change the world, teaching us compassion for...

Living the Sweet Life: When was the last time you dropped Him a line?

That was a question that I asked myself recently. By “Him” I mean God, of course, and my reasons were many. Most of us who are Christians are trained and taught to pray and for the most part, we do exactly that. Prayers are a part of our way of asking for forgiveness when we know we have done something...

Living the Sweet Life: Just Got a Big Calling

Sometimes when you start something really good, it evolves and spills into other parts of your life. This column and what it actually means in terms of my identity has done just that. I spend a lot of time with little people. My littles don’t read this column, and some can’t even read yet at all. After...

Living the Sweet Life: Making Love Nests

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s June again and time for Fort Bend Focus’ wedding issue. The styles we have in wooing one another could not be more diverse. Some are attracted to shiny castles and presents, while others are content as can be with a simple hand held. What turns us “on” is a magnificent...

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...

Living the Sweet Life: An Artist’s Calling

Through the years, I have been compelled to use my talents as a photographer to give back to my community. My first project back in 2002 was a ten-year run of breast cancer calendars titled Hope and Inspiration, which provided an opportunity for each of us to contribute to research and helping those...

Living the Sweet Life: The Scents of Our Life

Recently I was watching a show on Animal Planet about animals that normally do not get along.  There was the sleepy lionesses after a kill, lounging in the sunshine, covered in pesky flies, with their trusty friend, the lizard, gobbling the flies up. There was the great white shark with scores of other fish...

Living the Sweet Life: The Scents of Our Life

The day my Nana died was as good a day as ever there could be.  She lived to 102 and was done.  A few hours earlier, I had been summoned by sister to “get here quickly,” but in reality, Nana wasn’t going anywhere until I arrived. She was a wonderfully grumpy old lady in those last years and was none...