League City businesses house secrets from long ago.

A visit to Main Street in League City is a bit like taking a trip back in time. Lined with 150-year-old live oaks, planted as seedlings by founder George Washington Butler, Main Street tells tales that are an integral part of Texas history.

Double your gifts (and blessings) when you shop with companies that match your purchase

Lack of desire isn’t my stumbling block. I long to see the hungry fed, the orphans loved, and the sick healed. I dream up solutions to these problems—I’ll adopt a dozen children, spearhead a community garden, hold workshops on nutrition and healing.

Love and determination in Galveston gifts children in Africa.

In the middle of a December night in 2006, Galveston artist Linda Ercole-Musso woke up and could not get back to sleep. She turned on the TV and happened to catch CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour hosting a documentary on the devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on Kenyan children. Her sleepless night turned into a call to action.

Lone stars, cowboys, native landscapes, featured in city-wide greening project!

The sinuous highways of Houston are functional corridors that provide transportation safely and efficiently. Designed by engineers, this network has dominated the visual landscape, particularly lending to Houston’s grayish-brown image with vast swaths of barren concrete and asphalt.

Favorite back-to-school reading recommendations.

“In August swallows southward fly, summer’s waning, fall is nigh,” reads a line from one of my favorite children’s books ever, Tasha Tudor’s Around the Year, a delightfully rhyming poem celebrating seasonal delights of a simpler time.

“Writer in the Schools” helps children share thoughts and learn about the world.

“I love my job,” says Carmen Erma Jacobson, a Bay Area pre-kindergarten teacher who is also a writer. Five years ago, she began working with Writers in the Schools (WITS),

Tommy’s Restaurant joins Galveston Bay Foundation’s oyster reef restoration efforts.

In the Houston-Galveston area we love our oysters and do our part, along with other Americans, to devour roughly 2.5 billion of these delectable little mollusks annually.

Clean Water Partnership promotes environmental stewardship.

There is no denying the intrinsic beauty of Galveston Bay, but nature often needs a helping hand to maintain a long-term, sustainable relationship with the nearly 4.5 million people who live in the five counties that surround the Bay.

Protecting this natural treasure for summer fun and a thriving local economy.

The hot, brutal days of Texas summer…Even the thought of stepping out the door is sometimes daunting, but for those with access to Galveston Bay, being outside can be a joy.

The Help’s Kathryn Stockett and Tate Taylor share views on their book, movie.

The day after I spoke with Kathryn Stockett, author of the bestselling novel, The Help and the movie’s director Tate Taylor, I received one of those spam-ish group emails from a family member.

Its message was bashing President Obama, which I could have let go because I know that political jokesters and pundits pick on all presidents.

A dedicated team changes lives with dream bedrooms for children with life threatening illnesses.

Experts tell us that love and gratitude can be the most healing medicine in our lives. Special Spaces Houston is combining these potent forces to enrich the lives of special kids, and their families, who deal with life threatening illness every day.

B.Artise raises high fashion from the ashes of old clothing.

Earth Month celebrates the movement toward eco-consciousness and a green revolution. Trends in fashion are following suit. Even if you love the idea of vintage duds you may, like designer B. Artise, be frustrated with what is available.

Philanthropic partnership empowers Texas women in transition.

Success is sweetest when it is shared. The recent partnership between two successful organizations, Ming Wang, a Texas-based collection of luxury knitwear known for its professional and versatile styles and Attitudes & Attire™, a non-profit agency dedicated to women who have been in tough situations and who are now seeking self-sufficiency, illuminates this adage brilliantly.

Practice an awakening journey that leads to personal discovery.

I began my yoga “journey” in the summer of 1972. I was 12 years old then. I was 7 when I had my first taste of meditation. I am so grateful that these things came to me when they did.

A mid-life career change, determination and dedicated compassion for women’s health leads to Victory.

Dr. Susan Gaskill is a giver, a doer and an agent for positive change in women’s health care.

Get your “hands on” high

There’s a serene satisfaction that comes from physical effort. You can see it in the sweat-streaked but beaming faces of bike riders after they complete a 25-mile ride. You can feel it when you pitch in at a beach cleanup or when you finish writing a stack of thank-you notes by hand. You can taste it when you sample the first bite of a complicated recipe you spent hours preparing.

Pick local for good nutrition and community growth.

If ever an issue has become something of a hot-button lately, it’s food. In October, 2011 the Los Angeles Times ran a story on how schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District

Small drops of effort wash communities with hope.

In the frenzy of holiday shopping for friends and family we can forget that we are surrounded by those in need—the sick, the lonely, the hungry, the hurting. While it may seem that our individual efforts aren’t significant enough to impact so much despair, little  drops of effort can wash our community with hope.

Stewards of the Food-Insecure.

Who’s going hungry right here? Rising food prices, layoffs, the end of the space shuttle program, lingering effects of Hurricane Ike and other economic stressors have more people running on empty.

A Tale of Passion and Resilience..

From the time Aphrodite, goddess of love, stepped out of an oyster shell, these bivalve mollusks have captured the imagination of people across the world.