Tag archives: love

Always
By Ashleigh Brilliant   |   September 26, 2023

One of Irving Berlin’s best-known songs begins with the words: “I’ll be loving you, always.” And it goes on to assure the “you” to whom it’s addressed, that this is really a very special pledge, with no terminal date. It’s “not for just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year […]

Falling in Like
By Ashleigh Brilliant   |   September 12, 2023

Yes, let’s leave Love out of it. The word is too loaded. Saying “Like” is, in most cases, much easier and safer, and probably more accurate. There are too many songs about Love, and too few about Like. But aren’t we really talking about Friendship? True, there aren’t many songs about that either. But it […]

Keeping Your Heart Open Is a Rebellious Act
By Rebecca Capps   |   August 29, 2023

Most of us have experienced heartbreak at some point that caused us to wonder if opening up our hearts again is even possible or worth it. Nothing is quite as uplifting and powerful as love — and nothing is as devastating and painful as its loss. You may feel heartbroken or emotionally closed off from […]

The Love-Addicted Divorce: Letting Go of Your Ex, Honestly
By Dr. Cortney S. Warren   |   February 21, 2023

by Dr. Cortney S. Warren, Ph.D., ABPP “Sometimes your heart needs more time to accept something that your mind already knows.” – Paulo Coelho  Getting divorced is a downright awful experience. As if slogging through legal documents that remind you of contentious fights about money, kids, or pets with your now-ex isn’t unpleasant enough, you’re […]

Too Much Love
By Ashleigh Brilliant   |   September 20, 2022

Loving one another is OK – but let’s not overdo it. Can there be too much love? We’ve all heard of “smother love” – a kind of emotional swaddling that comes near to stifling the object of affection – particularly associated with over-protective parents. Some people are surprised to hear that my own parents, when […]

Taking Aim
By Ashleigh Brilliant   |   March 29, 2022

Archery began with the discovery that a propelled arrow could travel farther than a thrown spear – but has subsequently gone in many strange directions. In late Victorian England, there were two outstanding schools for women, which each had an eminent headmistress. At the North London Collegiate School for Ladies, there was Frances Mary Buss; […]

Natural Rhythms
By Richard Mineards   |   March 1, 2022

Santa Barbara Symphony was in fine form under maestro Nir Kabaretti when it staged Beethoven in Bloom at the Granada. The show featured five-time Emmy Award-winner Jeff Beal’s new work The Great Circle, with an impressive backdrop of photos provided by the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden of the damage done by the cataclysmic fire and […]

The Joy of Cooking Together
By Ann Brode   |   December 28, 2021

This time of year, when days are short and nights are longer, it feels important to celebrate light and be light-hearted. The traditions of Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, and Kwanzaa all include lighting candles, singing songs, and feasting together. Although COVID sensibilities have pared down the numbers, we don’t have to cancel the party. Smaller […]

Genuine Love in the Time of COVID
By William Peters   |   November 30, 2021

The last six months of my father’s life were spent in isolation from our family and his friends, but not, as I was to learn, from a new, adhoc family that embraced him. Like millions across the U.S., the COVID lockdowns kept me, my mother, and my siblings completely apart from my 80-year-old father. But, […]

A Love/Hate Relationship with Montecito
By Stella Haffner   |   October 5, 2021

It is a truth universally acknowledged that those in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a Montecito property with an ocean view – to paraphrase ever so slightly. What our friend Ms. Austen said with irony, Mack Ellis does not. Having gained perspective since leaving for college, Mack’s letter contrasts the […]

The Goodbye
By Elizabeth Rose   |   September 9, 2021

“Diary of a Partner of a Commercial Fisherman” was inspired by Santa Barbara fish wife Margaret Holden Eaton who wrote Diary of a Sea Captain’s Wife: Tales of Santa Cruz Island. Diary of a POCF is a limited series written while Jason fished sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska, in 2021. I hope to show […]

About the Wedding…
By Elizabeth Rose   |   August 5, 2021

Our wedding was nothing that I expected and more than I could have hoped for: Jason and I were married in front of close family on a Wednesday, with a small reception on Saturday. And if I had to choose one moment to sum up the week, it was the time I snuck out of […]

The Medicine of Love
By Gretchen Lieff   |   January 14, 2021

Darkness Deepens, and Then Light It was the first Sunday evening of a gloomy 2021. We tried our best at making it seem like a “Happy” New Year, full of new hope and promise. But it was not.  We had just returned from a dog walk through our Montecito neighborhood and it was usually lovely […]

Vulnerability and the Heart
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 6, 2020

Jennifer Sommerville leads a special pre-Valentine’s Day workshop at Unity of Santa Barbara in which all are invited to come celebrate love with an exploration of what it means to be vulnerable through conversation, heart math and creative expression using multimedia arts and craft. The free 11:30 am workshop takes place in Unity’s community room. […]

Sweetheart Valentine’s Event
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 6, 2020

The new La Cumbre Center for Creative Arts invites all to share Valentine’s love at the new creative art center where the 24 artists including painters, sculptors, photographers, 3D printers and others occupying three spaces in La Cumbre Mall with studio and gallery spaces, classes, guidance and resources for artists have created special pieces for […]

Giving and Forgiving
By Ashleigh Brilliant   |   November 21, 2019

Considering how many things we are warned not to “take for granted,” it is good to bear in mind all the others – of which, may I suggest, the most precious is someone’s love. Love is a gift we grant and receive with no expectation of return. We take it for granted. Therein lies the […]

Happy Super Bowl to You!
By Ernie Witham   |   February 8, 2018

I love my wife more than I love football. I just want to make that perfectly clear. I also love the family more than I love football. Another point you need to understand. Finally, I love family events, such as birthday parties, specifically my wife Pat‘s birthday party, more than I love football. That almost […]