Like a Diva - Learn to Live - Learn To Live

One World, One Cloth

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:29:59 -0600

My yellow cab snakes its way down a narrow twisting street. Tiny storefronts overflow onto the sidewalks where vendors hawk cheap imported goods. An old woman in a wheelchair rolls down the middle of the street, seemingly oblivious to the cars and buses that pass within inches of her. Delivery vans sometimes entirely block what is little more than an alley. The meter ticks away dollars and cents.

My Egyptian driver asks me again what address I’m looking for. I apologize and dig through my bag to find the scrap of paper with the scribbled location on it.

From BellSouth Boardroom to Butterfly House Studio: A Journey Into the Feminine Divine with Susan Ryles

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 15:25:38 -0700

You'd never guess to look at Susan Ryles that she spent most of her life in buttoned-up business suits. Her favored look these days is decidedly more bohemian: feminine, quirky, and fun. Equally at home in a boardroom or her charming Butterfly House Studio, her journey inward has taken her from operator, to union leader, to Human Resources manager, and finally, to her current incarnation as what can best be described as an art goddess.

The retired BellSouth manager says she first realized she was an artist in the seventh grade. Temporarily relocated from Jacksonville, FL to a new school in Pompano Beach, she found herself in an art class. “And I thought, hey! I can do this! This is great!” But a short month later she was uprooted again. This time, there was no art class at her school, and her inner artist took a backseat for the next thirty years.

Re-Defining Diva

Sat, 12 Nov 2005 05:32:27 -0700

The word diva comes to us from Italian, and means, literally, goddess. It's the feminine of the Latin divus, meaning divine or god.

Somewhere along the way, divas got a bad reputation. Being a diva isn't about being obnoxious or self-centered. It's about recognizing the divine inside us. The Divine Spirit isn't 'out there' somewhere, or inside a particular building or book. It's inside each of us. When I look inward, listen to that still small voice, and learn to live in accordance with that voice is when I am at my best. It's when I feel most at one with the Universe. That's what being a Diva means to me - being aware of the Goddess within me and learning to live accordingly.

Passing It Along: A Gardening Legacy Grows in Tucker

Thu, 3 Nov 2005 16:50:27 -0700

When Tara Dillard married into the Cofer family and moved onto the family estate in Tucker, she didn’t know what a sweetshrub was, let alone its botanical name.

Twenty-five years later, the girl from Texas who had never smelled a sweetshrub loses me as she rattles off the botanica familiaris of the dozens of plants in her own lush landscape. Today, she is a nationally award-winning garden writer who has authored four gardening books and hosted her own television show for CBS. She lectures throughout the Southeast, and teaches regularly at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. She’s toured gardens throughout Europe and all over the US.