I have the honor of calling Matthew Wettergreen a friend (and sharing a birthday) and the joy of being one of the first to have had space and work at Caroline Collective.  His blog post about Houston the other day is nothing short of love letter to the city I adore and it reminded me that love, whether for a city or a person or a cause, is an action and empowering others is one of the greatest expressions of love there is.

” It was no longer about saying “I love Houston,” it was more about actions and showing that love, inspiring that individual passion and empowerment in others. It was about showing individuals and communities that they owned the power to improve that which they saw around them. It was about everyone doing it for everyone, doing it to share passion and enthusiasm to learn, grow, and improve… “

If you find yourself in H-Town for a long… or short period of time… his post is well worth the read >>

As a member of the Live Oak Friends Meeting in Houston, TX I was reminded a few Sunday’s ago during Meeting for Worship just how much I missed the James Turrell Skyspace. Walking into the Meeting House I could see the sun glowing inside – illuminating the room and the people. Feeling The Light Within was not hard to do that morning.

For more on the re-opening Douglas Britt has a great article over at the Houston Chronicle…

Illuminating the spirit in Quaker meeting space

By DOUGLAS BRITT Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

July 29, 2010, 5:50PM

On a recent Sunday morning, members of the Live Oak Friends Meeting, a community of Quakers based in the Heights, saw something they hadn’t seen in more than two years: the sky as viewed through a 12-foot square window in the roof of their unassuming meeting house on West 26th…

Visiting the Skyspace shortly after it opened in 2001, former Houston Chronicle art critic Patricia C. Johnson described “a glorious interior space that makes manifest the Quaker principles of simplicity, silence and the ‘light within.’ ”

“The eyes cling to this skyward window, to the clouds and occasional bird in flight that pass across it, but especially to the light,” she wrote. “At sundown, light shifts softly from porcelain transparency to silken cobalt blue and velvet black. Eyes turn inward, and a hush descends. The Skyspace transforms the spare, white meeting room into a luminous chamber, a metaphor for the body and soul.”

Read The Full Article on the Live Oak Friends Meeting House, James Turrell Skyspace Re-Opening in Houston, TX >>

8 Years Old Today!
My life is full and blessed because you are in.

Gwen Bell’s #best09 cont… December 2 Restaurant moment. Share the best restaurant experience you had this year. Who was there? What made it amazing? What taste stands out in your mind?

I have the joy and pleasure of getting to work with Brennan’s Family here in Houston, TX and I am honored that I was able to be part of the team that helped promote Bistro Alex. Getting to dine there on one of their practice night was definitely THE restaurant moment of 2009. Being able to enjoy it with Fab!Hubby, Happy Katie & Happy Katie’s Fab!Hubby only made it better. The food was superb, the wine flowed, the company rocked and they truly treated us like family as they are know to do. Still, I have to admit that the best part of the best restaurant moment was reveling in the true wonder that is Bistro Alex’s truffled escargot bordelaise and chevre stone ground grits from the Osso Bucco… good lord! and yum!!!