There is an old saying that goes: “Once your feet touch the sand on Jekyll Island, you will always return.” Well, I think it goes for all our gorgeous beaches here in the Golden Isles. There must be some truth to it, because a large part of our coastal population migrated here after retirement to enjoy the fruits of their labors. They do this by basking in our golden sunshine, enjoying picturesque scenery, and the much slower pace at which we locals tend to move.

The question of care often arises for retirees who have relocated great distances from their still-working adult children, who live in various cities across the country. We no longer live in an agrarian society where land is tilled, tended and passed down the generations. This cultural change offers an exponential amount of freedom to retirees. Gone for them are the days of hitting the snooze button a few times before punching the clock. Every day feels like the weekend when you retire to the beach!
Retirees are free to spend their days with no obligations to anything other than what they choose as long as their bodies can keep up. So, what happens when a hip gives out, or Mom seems more forgetful? Was there a plan made in advance for the inevitable part of this human experience?

There’s something special about the bond a man has with his chair. There is no set time for a man to acquire his chair, and his chair may vary throughout his life. Nonetheless, a man’s chair is a place where many important decisions are pondered and made, both personally and professionally. In history, we can look back to powerful moments put into action from a chair. From his bunker chair, Winston Churchill successfully pondered how to save the free world, and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats eased an entire nation, all from a chair. More iconically is the power kings convey from their thrones and the barking of orders from the director’s’ chair to create great movies. Sometimes the chair itself takes on a best supporting role and becomes a character of its own like Archie Bunker’s famous chair in “All in the Family,” or Martin Crane’s chair in “Frasier.”

Curiously, we wanted to see some of the chairs our local Glynn County men are attached to, so we went looking for a few good men. We did a good job finding them, and not only did they have a favorite chair, but a lot of heart, as well!

What's the one accessory that can transform your face? Earrings! Did you know that large earrings make a nose look smaller? Or that silver hoops cool down a ruddy complexion? Or that a pair of gold button earrings warm up pale skin tones?

"There are few accessories that can have as much effect on the face as a pair of earrings," says health and beauty expert Deborah Chase, author of "Terms of Adornment: The Ultimate Guide to Accessories." "Round or square, plain or fancy, earrings bring light, color and movement to the face. They are the perfect finish to a look, adding balance, polish and personality."

Healthy joints make for happy athletes. A bum knee, sore shoulder or painful wrist gets in the way of your best time—playing tennis, riding your bike, humiliating yourself at golf.

Research shows that more than 80 percent of all sports injuries involve joints. Ouch! The good news is that there’s a lot YOU can do, and Aleve cannot, to keep your joints strong and healthy all year long.

Here are seven points about joints that will save you time, money, aggravation and dependence on painkillers:

Dear Carrie, My 17-year-old daughter has her first summer job with a reasonable salary.
To me, this is a great opportunity for her to start saving and realizing the power of
compound interest. What’s your advice on how to explain that to her? —A Reader

Dear Reader, I agree this is a great opportunity for your daughter to start saving—and the power of compound interest is one of the primary reasons as you suggest. A key factor in compounding is time, and at 17 your daughter has plenty of time to watch her savings grow. Plus, while interest rates have been very low for the past 10 years, they’re starting to rise and that can help even a beginning saver see some results.

The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim and headed straight for a couple who were swimming between their anchored sportfish and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other, and she had screamed, but now they were just standing neck-deep on a sandbar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard toward him. “Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not 10 feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears and screamed, “Daddy!”

Meet four groups of fun-time locals procuring personal wellness and the social benefits of playtime. For them, Glynn County is their Playground.

Bella Italia of the Golden Isles: Bocce League
While Sunday driving through St. Simons Island’s Epworth neighborhood, check out the fun-loving, competitive bocce players associated with Bella Italia of the Golden Isles. They are in full springtime play at Glynn County’s Epworth Park.

You’ll find official bocce game rules posted adjacent to two Olympic-size regulation bocce courts. Meet Rodney, Tony, Mark and Joe, all original league members who beam with pride when asked to share the successful bocce courts construction story. “Glynn County Parks and Recreation brought in a group from Jacksonville for consultation. They did it right and did a good job; the courts are beautiful,” said Mark Gagliano, League Commissioner. “These former shuffleboard courts are now crushed oyster shell bocce courts with stone underneath, so it drains.”  

Only those who have experienced it will ever know the immense strength it takes to face Lyme disease. Strength to withstand blow after blow from an unseen, unknown stealth pathogen that evades modern diagnostics and moves rapidly through the body attacking any system it chooses. Strength to bear being ignored, dismissed, disrespected, and outright laughed at by those who don’t believe your illness is real, including doctors. Strength to keep trusting your own judgment instead of giving in to outside suggestions that you’re “just depressed.” Strength to carry on with daily activities when all the joy has been sapped out of them by a disease famous for the fact that it doesn’t kill you; it just makes you want to die. Strength to persevere when you’ve been led into collapse by false diagnoses and misguided treatments that only made you worse; to find hope in the latest plan when all the previous ones have failed. Strength to dig deep and pull yourself up over and over, day after day, year-in and year-out with no end date because supposedly there isn’t a cure. Strength to keep believing in yourself when you’ve been on the floor for so long, to keep believing in life, to keep believing in happiness.

Only survivors can understand this.

My boyfriend and I pretend we have thick New Jersey accents when we go to art museums. It dissolves the pretension that sometimes comes with viewing art in a somewhat subdued and stuffy environment. It also entertains on-lookers, perhaps adding a little humor to their day, and who doesn’t need humor? One more thing it does, it keeps our relationship fresh and unpredictable. There are advantages to consistency, but a predictable relationship breeds boredom, and we don’t want that.

He texts me in the morning “Good morning, Honey,” and I text back, “Awww, tanks Fwankie, you are so schweet and muscular.” (His name is Robin.)  I’m more likely to get a fun conversation going that way than if I text back, “Good morning, sweetie.” Playfulness keeps relationships vital. It helps you have something to fall back on when times get rough.

If you’re dreaming of going to the beach for some afternoon down time, remember to take your fashion sense with you. But before the clothes come off and the beach party begins, here are a few tips to keep your cool and avoid having a beach style meltdown.

Do keep it natural.
Who really wants to wear a ton of makeup in hot weather? The smoky eye may be all the rage, but smudged “raccoon” eyes at the pool are not setting any style trends. Invest in some waterproof cosmetics if you feel like you need to, but otherwise, keep it natural and enjoy the freedom of a bare face.

Family dynamics are a funny thing. Often times it is better to sit back and reflect upon your own life experiences and interactions to grow and learn.  Being an awesome mother-in-law is just that: Understanding what or where you come from can only embrace a better journey together for your own family, especially when a daughter-in-law is involved. Women are strong forces in the family dynamics, and for the most part, your own daughter-in-law will be calling the shots. Don’t get left out just because you are unwilling to understand this new woman in your life!

Looking back, perhaps you’ve had a wonderful relationship with your mother-in-law, or maybe not.  If you’ve struggled with that relationship and want a better one with your daughter-in-law, here are a few things she’d like you to know:

Sigmund Freud didn’t get everything right, but here’s one thing he said that has the ring of truth. “In our innermost soul,” the world’s most famous shrink tells us, “we are children and remain so for the rest of our lives.”

Some years earlier, Plato delivered this bit of wisdom: “What then is the right way of living? Life must be lived as play.”

This week—if you can tear yourself away from politicians on TV—I encourage you to locate your inner child and play, play, play. Play is the antidote to confusion, even at the constitutional level. Play lowers our stress and lightens our hearts. It awakens our bodies and renews our energy. From peekaboo to pillow fights to paper airplanes in the park, play brings pleasure, reduces pain and stimulates the brain’s production of endorphins, your body’s way of saying, “All is well.”

I have had the pleasure of knowing a lot of men, and I have been secretly using the data I’ve collected from them to determine information about their species. One of the key attributes the majority of men have in common is their collective answer to the question “What are you thinking?”

My studies show that a mind boggling 97 percent of men, when asked “What are you thinking?” will respond with the answer: “Nothing.”

Mark your calendars for the 25th Anniversary of Glynn County’s Relay for Life event! On Friday, April 26th, volunteer co-chairwomen, Peggy Tuten and Joni Bennett, along with hundreds of Relay volunteers, will welcome all to our community-wide fundraising event on the grounds at Brunswick’s Golden Isles Church of God. Peggy shared valuable logistics to ensure we all get to experience the best this special evening has to offer:

First Things First: Wear comfortable shoes, arrive early to get a good parking space. And, even though this is a solemn event, we want everyone to have fun, special time. We are commemorating and celebrating!

I could never be a medical transcriptionist. It’s not the typing that would deter me. My problem would be hearing the symptoms and medical conditions. I’d think I have all of them. To say that I am easily influenced is like saying the Titanic sprung a leak.

Knowing this about myself, I wasn’t all that surprised to end up with yet another condition after watching an episode of “Oprah” devoted to the “disease to please.”

I flew through Oprah’s “Do You Have the Disease to Please?” self-diagnosis quiz.

Savor rhymes with favor, and if it’s not in your vocabulary, it should be. Why? Because learning to savor is a wonderfully effective steppingstone to greater happiness, according to the latest research in positive psychology. And yet, these days—when so many of us are feeling chronically rushed and endlessly distracted—who has time for savoring?

Which is why I find Fred Bryant’s work so appealing. Fred is a psychology professor at Loyola University in Chicago, and he’s been studying happiness for 38-plus years. While other researchers focus on what to do if you’re not happy—how to deal with trauma, depression, the evening news—Bryant’s pioneering work shines light on the positive experiences in life and how to process and appreciate them. That’s what savoring is all about, and it does wonders for your well-being.

More than anything else, my greatest hope and intention for this article on female empowerment is that each and every person reading it will choose to show up and say YES to YOU.  

YES to that inner voice—the voice of intuition. YES to your life force and universal energy that is calling you to perhaps follow that crazy idea, move across country, start a painted furniture store business, to committing to that kickboxing program. YES because you are the only YOU that you have, and you deserve it; YES because there’s no one who can do it for you; it’s truly up to you.

Face a new season with a fresh outlook! Update your makeup palette with Easter egg-colored eyeshadows, bold lips, glowing cheeks and strong brows. Try one new trend at a time and you’ll have a whole new attitude to welcome spring. Here’s what’s making the biggest buzz on the spring runways:

Luscious lips.
If you only change one thing in your makeup routine this season, make it your lip color. From velvety corals to hot fuchsias to barely-there pinks, there are plenty of choices for every preference. Just try a change—or two or three!

March 1st marks the start of Women’s History Month.
This month-long celebration recognizes and celebrates women who have made their mark and made a difference. We look to icons such as Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, and Mother Teresa as some of the greatest and thank them for the incredible acts they accomplished in their lifetime. There are so many women, in both the distant and recent past, who blazed new paths and paved the way for the generations of today. It is the collective effort of all those powerful women before us, who collected their courage in the face of fear to serve as forces, role models and voices for women and girls all over the world.

Scrumptious and succulent is what’s on the menu this season as we gear up for special times, cool  sunshine and good friends. Enter vivid color— the star of this spring’s soirees. It’s the perfect  way for your dinner party or brunch to bloom and fill the room. Get creative and have fun setting your table to blossom with vibrancy, burst with texture, and come alive with the assistance of Mother Nature’s tiny works of art. Here are a few wares we gathered to say hello to sensational spring.

Class is in session. Today’s topic isn’t the sexiest, but if you’ve ever had a muscle cramp during sex, you know how it can snap the brain to complete attention. Cramps happen at other times, too.
You’re running across a tennis court when suddenly, someone is jabbing a fork into your calf. Or you’re blissfully swimming along and for no reason, your toes get stuck in a vise. Or you’re asleep in bed hours after a vigorous walk— nighttime cramps are very common—and you’re jolted awake with a piercing pain in your thigh.

So much for the problem. Let’s talk solutions. Though it’s still a bit of a mystery why some people get cramps—aka charley horses or muscle spasms—there are lots of things you can do for prevention and relief.

Take time for a deep breath. Then take a stroll down the spice aisle, inhaling the exotic aromas—from pungent turmeric to zesty pepper to fresh sage—that have inspired the colors of a spirited fashion season. Here’s a list of the newest spicy hues to add to your clothes rack this year.

Not-so-mellow yellow. A current culinary favorite, turmeric, is a favorite color with the fashion crowd. The yellows this spring range in shade from amber to mustard to curry to gold. Wear variations of this color palette from head to toe for an ultrasophisticated look.

My first recollection of being bitten by the wanderlust bug was in high school. Gazing out the window in the middle of a Latin class, I found myself daydreaming about what life must have been like in the early days of Roman language development. How did people communicate, live, meet others, and date? What did they do for fun? I had no idea at the time what a wealth of worldwide opportunities awaited me; I just dreamed about them.

After I graduated from college, my sister, Diane, and I went to Europe on a tour of England, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France. This was back in the day when young women traveling abroad wore shirtwaist dresses and virgin pins. I didn’t care what I had to wear; I was fascinated by the countries, cultures, cuisines, and people.

We’re past the the first month of the new year. What have you got to show for it? Of course, I mean that in the nicest possible way.

> Are you physically active at least three times a week as you promised yourself when your favorite jeans mysteriously shrunk two sizes between Thanksgiving and New Year’s?

> Are you working smarter and getting more accomplished because you’ve been meditating every morning and limiting your screen time interruptions to a modest 15 times a day?

Even though most of us are still wrapped up in our puffer coats, the fashion winds are blowing in the balmy trends for a new season.

And it’s time to loosen up and go with the flow of breezy designs, tropical prints and, yes, even bike shorts.

Here’s the shortlist of the spring runways’ latest trends:

Frilly dresses.
In the softest of fabrics, such as chiffon and satin, the dress is all dressed up this spring with feathers, ruffles, ruching and bows. The short babydoll dress is back! It’s time to feel like a princess again and give these frilly dresses a whirl.

Thirty years ago, three women met at a weaving class sponsored by the Coastal Alliance for the Arts at the Island Art Center on SSI. Mary Egle, Kim Merck and Jean Sucher soon realized their common interests in other fiber arts techniques. We decided to see what community interest there might be in forming a group dedicated to various fiber arts, so we placed a December 1988 meeting announcement newspaper ad.

To our surprise, over 60 interested folks showed up, many with examples of their fiber arts works! It was decided at that inaugural meeting to form a Fiberarts Guild for the Golden Isles.

Have you heard about self-care?
Merriam-Webster defines it as “care for oneself,” and the concept of making your physical and emotional wellness a priority is really taking off. It’s not selfish to take care of yourself and your well-being.

“Self-care is vitally important because if you don’t take the time to stop and care for yourself, your body will stop you,” says Canadian mental health advocate Mark Henick. “If you never let your foot off the gas, you won’t keep driving forever—you’ll either run out of gas or crash. The same is true for the body and mind.”

Henick says self-care is a choice to re-balance your internal resources so you can bounce back from stressors.

From all-over shimmering cocktail frocks to glittering skirts and jackets—even glittering leggings and twinkling toes—there are show-stopping ways to sparkle in sequins. But before you leave a trail of shiny discs behind you, here are a few things to keep in mind when buying sequined clothing.

Check the care labels.
Many of you may not have taken a shine to sequins for this very reason: They can be intimidating to clean. After years of owning all kinds of “embellished” clothing, I heartily recommend hand-washing with baby shampoo. While many pieces can be laundered on the gentle cycle in the washing machine, just as you would delicate lingerie, it can be tricky. Just make sure you turn the garment inside out and place it in a mesh bag. Never place in a dryer, but rather drip-dry over a towel and then lay flat.

What? You’ve already thought you may fail to keep your New Year’s resolutions?

Of course you have. Welcome to human nature. And don’t feel badly. Zillions of your fellow Americans are also failing to give up nachos, sleep seven hours a night, bicycle to work, defend their souls against time-sucking small-screen devices. Great intentions, depressing results.

Why is the new-habit failure rate so high? Because changing behavior—as in developing new habits—is a skill. Like shoeing a horse. It’s something you need to learn how to do, so when you decide to do it, your chance of success will skyrocket.

Dear Readers,
I talk a lot about setting financial goals, primarily because I believe in them. Having an idea of what you want to achieve is the first step in actually doing something. That’s particularly true when it comes to money. And what better time to focus on your financial goals than the start of a new year?
To me, setting goals can actually be the fun part of getting on top of your finances. Why? Because it’s a chance to evaluate your priorities and maybe dream a little. For instance, what are the most important things you’d like to achieve in both the near and distant future? Do you dream of buying a house, or starting a new business? What’s on your travel bucket list? Do you imagine switching to a less lucrative but more fulfilling career path?