It wasn’t part of my parenting lesson plan that day, but I had the opportunity recently to model anger and anger management.

After several months with our house on the market, our family is well-trained to prepare our home for showings to potential buyers. My girls know to empty all the trashcans, put toilet seat lids down, clean the sinks, turn on lights, and clear clutter, clear clutter, clear clutter. I still have to trail behind them to finish the details, but they do pretty well. Read the full story

To the Editor:

Cornelius Commissioner Dave Gilroy writes: “The obviously failing Red Line Rail effort championed by our liberal-leaning, big-spending North Meck mayors (Woods, Tarte, and Swain) in concert with Anthony Foxx and Beverly Perdue’s Department of Transportation (NC DOT) is welcome news for taxpayers. The real tragedy however is that this aggressive, extremely well-organized, and high energy initiative could have been profoundly constructive for regional transportation if focused on our true priorities.” Read his full letter on CorneliusNews.net.

“Love you,” I said as I hung up the phone.

I don’t usually say that to anyone but family members. In this case, it was a dear friend who had recently lost her mother. But I realized that it is unusual for me to verbally express my deep affection for people, except when we share genes or a last name.

I do say or write those words to a few friends I’ve had for a long, long time. And I have newer friends for whom I feel great affection. But it’s unusual for me to actually tell friends those three little words — or the more casual two, “Love you.”

Read the full story

Retired Cornelius Commissioner Jim Bensman says Norfolk Southern executives told him two years ago there were concerned about the Red Line rail project’s design and whether freight and passenger traffic could co-exist along the line. Now, in two letters released recently, those concerns are now public. In a commentary on CorneliusNews.net, Mr. Bensman writes: “All the municipalities should cease their evaluations of this project until the Norfolk Southern situation is resolved.”

I majored in communications in college, worked in municipal public relations in California, was a broadcast journalist for eight years, and a weekly columnist for another 10 years.

Despite all that communicating, I’m still learning how inept I can be at it. Especially with my teenage daughter.

You’d think by now I might be pretty good at basic communication — the exchange of thoughts, messages, and information. However, I have much to learn about how to approach the adolescent mind, when to talk, when to listen … and when to run out of the room. Kidding. Sort of. Read the full story

“If you’re going to pray about it, you can’t worry about it. And if you are going to worry, you can’t pray about it,” the woman said to me.

“Can’t pray about it?” I thought. Harsh! But it made sense.
That was similar to the advice Paul, the prolific letter writer, gave the people living in ancient Philippi: That they shouldn’t worry about anything but “let your requests be made known to God.” My friend was giving me the same advice but with a challenging twist, a mirror image but warped like a fun house mirror.

Don’t worry. Pray. Worrying? Don’t pray. Read the full story

The New Year brings with it an opportunity to make new choices. Choices are powerful opportunities to make new changes in our lives. Maybe we should not simply resolve to lose five pounds, but resolve to choose a better path in 2012.

We could choose to grow emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, instead of starting 2013 in the exact same place we are now.
We could choose to respect and protect the world around us, instead of dumping our trash wherever we see fit or wasting our resources whenever we want. Read the full story

To the Editor:

When we moved to Davidson a year ago after a four year exhaustive search of ideal small towns nationwide, we thought the place couldn’t get any better. Well we were wrong. Even during the past year, so many wonderful refinements have taken place. This special little haven just keeps evolving, year after year.

Now, we have another opportunity to make a great place even greater. In my mind, the downtown Davidson rail yard project offers a win-win for all involved: citizens, visitors, seniors, children, teens, merchants and more. In addition to train travelers, cyclists and walkers will benefit, too. (See Real Estate & Home, Dec. 14, 2011, “Meetings seek input on updated rail station area plan.”)

The first place that immediately came to mind when reading about various plans for the property is the fairly new Railyard project in Santa Fe, NM. For those who haven’t been there, I have enclosed a plan and two links describing its make up and the acclaim it has received. And it has done all this while weathering a recession, with much growth still to come.

The best part of the Railyard is its integration of diverse uses: children’s park, picnic areas, amphitheater, restaurants and shops, farmers market, art and wellness facilities, teen centers and more. Given the available, largely undeveloped land available for this same type of project in Davidson, I believe we have an ideal chance to carve out our own community gathering space (supplementing the Green, of course) before other inevitable and perhaps less focused redevelopment takes place someday.

Andrea Nordstrom Caughey, River Run

RELATED LINKS

Dec. 14, 2011, DavidsonNews.net, “Meetings seek public input on updated rail station area plan.”

July 11, 2011, SustainableCitiesCollective.com, “Santa Fe Railyard Redevelopment Creates Rich Urban Experience”

Sept. 19, 2011, “How Art, Culture, and Community Drove Transit Oriented Development in Santa Fe”

Map and tenant list of The Railyard, in Santa Fe, (PDF) via RailyardSantaFe.com