In the middle of another organizing project, I found notes from a few years ago when I was captivated by the idea of summum bonum, a Latin expression introduced by the Roman philosopher Cicero that means the highest good. I thought it would be amazing to write a memoir of…
Everyone has a signature. Gail’s has lots of adjectives. Accomplished hostess. Consummate networker. Passionate foodie (she’s never met a vegetable she can’t turn into a work of art). She is enjoyed for her warmth, laughter and easy Southern access into her beautiful, well-appointed home and life. It’s silly really, the…
We’ve all heard the famous axiom of Chicago Architect Louis Sullivan (1856–1924): form follows function. Frank Lloyd Wright elevated the teaching of his mentor to argue over his lifetime of work that form and function are one. So many others have argued that what we create must be aesthetically pleasing—beautiful—and…
I have loved tearooms and the tea experience all my adult life. Sunday high tea in Stirling, Scotland, in the home of an elderly woman after a walk around the village green was high adventure—and a cheery, calming presence—for a young, newly arrived college woman. J. and I fell in…
There are people we learn from over the course of many years. Earnest Alexander is one of those rare individuals with great celebrity and uncommon humility. As an international gospel singer he’s taken stories of at-risk children to the world to break the cycle of fatherlessness. J. and I have been invited…
I loved spring in my garden beds. It brought a little more fullness to the boxwood we were pruning in the Japanese cloud style. Blue delphinium, blue cranesbill geranium, pink clematis, pink and creamy English roses came into play all at the same time under the snowy watch of blooming…