Category: Radiant Life

Land Trusts Protect More Than You Might Think

December 26, 2021
BrightDestinationsland trustsRadiant LifeTravel
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Visitors to North Carolina stroll by a centuries-old Native American site, then relive a taste of life in rural Appalachia from the early 1900s. Farther north, a center of attention is a stone that was placed during the mapping of the Mason-Dixon Line, which delineated the boundary between three British Colonies in America. The site…

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Give the Perfect Toast

December 25, 2021
BrightFoodLifestyleRadiant LifeToasT
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Being asked to present a toast is both a great honor and a very serious responsibility. Your words need to be meaningful, memorable, and heartfelt. To make your toast epic, it needs humor. To keep the audience happy, it needs to be brief. Keep It Brief We’ve all seen toasts given in movies and on…

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Winter Wonders: Château-Hopping in the Loire Valley

December 24, 2021
BrightDestinationsFranceLoire ValleyRadiant LifeTravel
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The scale of these gardens was so sweeping that when I climbed the final step to the top of the belvedere, I drew a breath. The size, yes, but also the remarkable attention to detail. Hemmed in on all sides—by a storybook village, a 12th-century church, a forest, and its namesake château, the gardens at…

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Drivers Ed: Performance Driving Schools

December 24, 2021
Brightdriving schoolRadiant Life
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The current crop of cars is faster than ever. Yet the majority of drivers rely on dusty skills learned in a high school driver’s education class in cars that are rarely permitted to go faster than 35 miles per hour on mostly empty local streets. Many EVs and four-door performance sedans go from zero to…

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Founding Friends Bound Together by the Fourth of July

December 21, 2021
American EssenceArts & LettersFounding FathersHistoryInspiredJohn AdamsJuly 4thLife & TraditionRadiant LifeThomas Jefferson
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The United States has been blessed with many distinguished leaders. But the generation that founded our nation has a special place in the hearts of many Americans. Even among that very special generation, two of our Founders stand out not only because of their many accomplishments and their lasting mark on the country, but because…

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The ‘Most Sublime of Nature’s Works’

December 12, 2021
American EssenceAmerican InspirationGeorge WashingtonInspiredLife & TraditionNatural BridgeRadiant LifeThomas JeffersonVirginia
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One of Virginia’s most amazing architectural treasures wasn’t formed by the hand of man at all, and it’s listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Thomas Jefferson once owned it. George Washington is said to have surveyed its location as a young lad of 17—though he was fully commissioned as a surveyor with a…

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America’s National Parks: Yosemite

December 11, 2021
American EssencehikingHome & GardeningInspiredLife & TraditionLifestyleRadiant LifeTravelYosemite National Park
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Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike. —John Muir Glimpsing a photograph of California’s iconic Yosemite Valley, it is easy to understand why millions of people from around the world make the pilgrimage to…

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‘The Voyage of Life’

December 11, 2021
American EssenceAmerican paintingHudson River SchoolInspiredLandscape paintingLife & TraditionRadiant LifeThe voyage of lifeThomas Cole
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America’s first great landscape painter, Thomas Cole, was a pivotal figure in the development of a distinctly American artistic identity in the early 19th century. Cole’s masterful landscapes range from picturesque compositions of America’s pristine wilderness to imaginative historical and allegorical scenes. The revered artist’s devotion to seeking the presence of God in nature inspired…

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Reflections from a Night on a Cliffside

December 10, 2021
American EssenceclimbingInspiredLife & TraditionparentingRadiant LifeRock Climbingtough loveYosemiteYosemite National ParkYosemite Valley
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Last year, my son Kyle and I were invited to join a climbing expedition with my good friend and client, Joe, and his son, Sam. Joe has been training Sam in hopes that he’ll become the youngest person to ever climb the famed El Capitan, a 3,000-foot vertical wall in Yosemite Valley that most consider…

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A Heritage Farm

December 7, 2021
AmericanAmerican EssenceBusinessdairy farmfarmfarmhousefarmlandHome & GardeninghomesteadInspiredLife & TraditionLifestyleRadiant LifesettlersU.S. farmersUS farmers
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Imagine a company that has been around for as long as the U.S. Capitol, is as old as West Point Academy, and is still family-owned and -operated today. There’s such a farm in Spencerport, New York, conducting business 219 years after its founding. In the beginning, it was a small family farm started by several…

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