Serenity

Kevin Fitzgerald's paintings can be seen this month at the Main Street Gallery in Annapolis. Fitzgerald lives on the Eastern Shore, but his work owes much to the French Barbizon painters of the mid-19th century who were forerunners of the impressionists. A graduate of the Maryland Institute, College of Art, Fitzgerald worked for a time as a studio assistant to Raoul Middleman. But unlike Middleman's expressionist landscapes, Fitzgerald's are quiet and peaceful, capturing the serenity of nature partly through emphasis on the horizontal.

Years ago, I accompanied James Cardinal Hickey, then the archbishop of Washington, to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, where then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was to give a lecture. After his lecture and after fielding questions from his audience, Cardinal Ratzinger boarded a small plane that would take him and five other passengers to Washington, where he would attend a dinner and then give another lecture. Even though he was suffering from a bad cold and the flight was quite turbulent, Cardinal Ratzinger remained calm and serene.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Spring training remains the most peaceful patch of green on the sporting landscape, but to say that it has surrendered some of its famous serenity is understating the matter.Baseball's mind-bending commerce has turned the spring season into an experience that is more jarring than calming. The season of renewal has become a season of adjustment for those in the game as well as those on the outside looking in.It used to be the time to loosen muscles, trim pounds and see the possibility in even the most average rookie arm. Now it's the time to get accustomed to the surreal sight of Wade Boggs in Yankee pinstripes and other knockout punches from baseball's annual flesh auction.

From the bucolic setting of her country home in Monkton to the gentle hum of the palm leaf paddles on the ceiling fans in her covered porch, Kim Eastburn's philosophy of decorating is apparent. "The focus of my design practice ... is to elevate interior design beyond just the esoteric," she said. "I think there is a huge opportunity to expand the conversation of overall wellness by bringing mindfulness to where we live. " Eastburn, who blogs as The Interior Design Shrink (theinteriordesignshrink.com)

Transferring a show from TV to movie screens is a risky proposition. Spend too much time introducing characters and mythology and alienate the show's fans, who already know this stuff. But assume too much existing knowledge and people new to the franchise will leave theaters confused. Joss Whedon's Serenity faces just such a disadvantage - despite the cult following of its TV predecessor, Fox's 2002-2003 Firefly. It's a challenge it never entirely overcomes. Firefly, set 500 years in the future, follows a group of freedom fighters rebelling against an interplanetary federation known as the Alliance.

ON A recent trip from Baltimore to Boston on the Acela Express, I opted for the promise of serenity in the "Quiet Car." The conductor informed each passenger as he made his way through the car inspecting tickets that cell phones, electronic equipment noises and loud talking were not allowed. We were also reminded of it by public address announcements every five minutes that included the statement that if we could hear the announcement, we were, indeed, in the Quiet Car. We were reminded again that we were in the Quiet Car when individuals, alerted audibly or not, jumped up and ran for the exit doors, apparently to take a call on their cell phones in the corridors between cars.

From the bucolic setting of her country home in Monkton to the gentle hum of the palm leaf paddles on the ceiling fans in her covered porch, Kim Eastburn's philosophy of decorating is apparent. "The focus of my design practice ... is to elevate interior design beyond just the esoteric," she said. "I think there is a huge opportunity to expand the conversation of overall wellness by bringing mindfulness to where we live. " Eastburn, who blogs as The Interior Design Shrink (theinteriordesignshrink.com)

JENNER, Calif. - "Psst." Darkness was coming, and with it coils of mist. The only sounds had been of heavy surf and the clacking together of water-smoothed stones, but now came the sharp call from a drifter settling in for the night in the cove, where overnight camping is prohibited. "Psst. Hey. You a cop? A ranger? I already talked to you guys. I wasn't even down here when it happened." For decades, the coastal route running north from San Francisco to the Canadian border has been among the last stretches of welcoming road for the nation's wanderers, a series of highways and byways where raising a thumb will still get you a ride, eventually, often from people who live along the way and perhaps once did some hitchhiking themselves.

For 10 years, trucks large and small trundled along western Howard County's country roads carrying thousands of pounds of Mexican marijuana to the region's green hills for distribution to central Maryland.Unknown to neighbors and law-enforcement authorities, local contractor Randolph Ayersman ran a wholesale drug ring out of his Dayton and Woodbine houses for a decade -- importing in all more than 3 tons of marijuana.Since the ring was discovered in 1994, Ayersman, his two brothers and five others in the cross-country ring have either pleaded guilty or been convicted of federal drug charges.

MARGARET LEE WAUGH-ERVIN age 51 Passed away on March 20, 2007 in Austin, Texas She is survived by her husband David Ervin Memorial Service Saturday 2:00 p.m. at Mission Funeral Home Serenity Chapel Austin, TX. 78745 (512)444-3355

Around the Web is a weekday roundup of posts by Sun community network members and other Baltimore area bloggers and websites. To suggest a post, share it on our wall on Facebook, tweet a link to it using the #mdblogs hashtag or fill out this form. Thursday, October 20, 2011 Steve Charing OUTspoken: 'Occupy' must harness its good energy What needs to be done, what would be smart, is for the Occupy movement in the U.S. to follow the model of the right wing's protest counterpart, the Tea Party, and delve into electoral politics whereby these complaints could be effectively addressed by a government that's sympathetic to its causes.

Where the salt air blends with the smell of tropical flowers, and the bay beyond the deck blooms with the masts and rigging of fishing and leisure boats, you will find the leader of Maryland's summertime playground. "You know, Harbor Island is the home of the White Marlin Open each year," says Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan, naming one the resort town's most popular traditions. "This community has everything — tennis courts, pool, tot lots [and] the Reel Inn bar and restaurant.

Just off busy Butler Road, in Glyndon, a road narrows and passes through two stone gates into a quieter time — a time when neighbors knew each other and enjoyed each other's company on their front porches. It was a time when friends routinely shared picnics and hymn sings on weekday evenings, and worship services and fried chicken dinners on Sundays. That's still the gentle way life flows during the warmer months at Emory Grove — a place that, as one visitor observed, "forces you to slow down and enjoy nature, and become part of a community.

People sentenced for drunken driving or other infractions once again have a place to go for the community service part of their court-ordered penance. A new, state-funded alternative sentencing program began operating Tuesday from the Serenity Center, a volunteer-run 12-step program already serving recovering alcohol and drug abusers in a small, unpretentious building next to the Talbott Springs swimming pool on Basket Ring Road in Columbia's Oakland Mills. Using an existing $85,000 state grant, the program will get help from the county detention center staff and from state parole and probation officers to screen candidates for the program referred for community service by county judges.

Old houses have character. You can't buy a door like that," said Bill Ward, waving at one of two curved doors in the foyer area of his family's home. The odd shape reportedly was an accommodation to hoop skirts. Hanging semicircular doors in 1819 when the house was built would have been a bear - thick, wide and tall, each weighs several hundred pounds, Ward said. The house, built on a slab and predating its Ellicott City neighborhood, offers unusual serenity, Ward and his wife, Sandy, said.

Originally settled as a farming community in the 1700s and later known as Buttersburg because the town's general store operator would take local butter for payment on goods, Union Bridge didn't get its current name until 1820. This came after a bridge was built over the Pipe Creek and swampland. Because residents on both sides of the bridge pitched in to help, it became known as Union Bridge. Today the sleepy country town located just 11 miles outside Westminster in rural Carroll County offers residents an amiable retreat.

On April 5, 2008, Robert Paul Ruhf A celebration of his life will be held on Sunday, April 13 at the Oakland Mills Interfaith Center, 5885 Robert Oliver Place, Columbia, Maryland 21045 at 1:00 pm. Memorial donations in his name may be made to the Serenity Center 9650 Basket Ring Road, Columbia, MD 21045.

A foster mother who has cared for a city girl for the past year is decrying a decision by the Baltimore Department of Social Services to take the girl away from her six weeks before a juvenile court decides who should raise the toddler: her mother, father or the foster mother, who wants to adopt the child. Foster parent Mary C. Coleman of Randallstown said she agrees that the child's birth parents should have an opportunity to regain custody of their daughter, but she disagrees with the state's decision to reunite the child with her father six weeks before the court date, April 25. Coleman has hired an attorney, hoping to keep the youngest of her six foster and adopted children at home until after the court decision, but she has been told she has no legal right to protest the removal of the girl, a 16-month-old named Serenity.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- It's been a long time since cowboys parked their ponies on Main Street in what was once proudly marketed as the West's Most Western Town. Today's Scottsdale is two P.F. Chang's, two California Pizza Kitchens and two Merrill Lynch offices. It is art galleries and turquoise shops and boutiques and Beemer convertibles and monster shopping malls serving monster subdivisions hidden behind faux-adobe walls. Fortunately, though you may have to look carefully, Scottsdale is still desert and the mountains -- or at least a short drive from desert and mountains.

On April 5, 2008, Robert Paul Ruhf A celebration of his life will be held on Sunday, April 13 at the Oakland Mills Interfaith Center, 5885 Robert Oliver Place, Columbia, Maryland 21045 at 1:00 pm. Memorial donations in his name may be made to the Serenity Center 9650 Basket Ring Road, Columbia, MD 21045.