Community

Saturday, May 22

To quote Luther Burbank, "Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul." After visiting the garden of Bev Kaplan in Boulder Creek, I couldn't agree more.

Every parent of a sick child wants to do whatever possible to make the child feel better. But most cold- and flu-like illnesses in children are caused by viruses, which will be cured by the child’s own immune system.

There was a time when we thought of health as simply the absence of disease. As long as you were not sick and had low blood pressure and good cholesterol readings, you were seen as a healthy person. Today, we recognize that our health is defined by many other factors, such as what we eat, physical fitness, sleep, levels of stress, emotional well-being, feeling connected to others and our general outlook on life.

Annabel Alice Rice was born to Katherine Alice (Palmer) and James Robert Rice of Scotts Valley at 8:30 p.m. March 1, 2011, at Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center in Santa Cruz. She weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce.