Feelings

"On the whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for him. Nobody can always have devout feelings; and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian love, either toward God or toward man, is an affair of the will. But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, his love for us does not." -- C.S. LEWIS Apparently, it is time for another change in my life.

While Mother's Day can be a time for sentimental reflection and celebration, it also can unleash emotions that surround one of life's most complex relationships. Writers, medical professionals and psychologists provide help for sorting out such sentiments in new books on library shelves. For new mothers, Kate Figes surveys the difficult, exhilarating and traumatic feelings childbirth can unleash in "Life After Birth: What Even Your Friends Won't Tell You About Motherhood."

The special-needs students in Lynda Zussman’s Newport Harbor High School class naturally have more obstacles than most. They have mild learning disabilities and struggle sometimes to deal with their emotions. That is why Zussman finds it necessary to create a positive atmosphere and methods to better prepare them for life’s challenges. “Negative feelings are OK,” she tells her classroom. “It is part of growing up.” Zussman wanted to help her students in a way that offered practical lessons.

On Monday, State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), whose voting record has consistently gone against legislative measures that favor gay rights and are friendly to homosexuals, lesbians and transgender people, told a hometown radio station that he is gay. He came out while answering questions about his arrest for suspected DUI on March 3. It turned out that he had visited a gay bar in the hours leading up to his arrest, according to...

Mathis Winkler COSTA MESA -- When Peter Vash starts talking about the holidays, it's easy to think that the season of joy is the most depressing time of the year. "Frustration, disappointment, loneliness, time constraints -- these are all emotions associated with the holidays that cause people to feel lonely and depressed," Vash said. But Vash's views don't mean that he's trying to become a real-life Grinch. As a doctor at the Costa Mesa branch of Lindora Medical Clinics, which specialize in weight-loss programs, he's simply trying to raise awareness that overeating is a real danger for many people during the holidays.

Lolita Harper Welcome to Skaters Anonymous. His name is Jim Gray, and he's a skate-aholic. He is addicted to rolling. He can't get enough of the adrenaline that pumps through his body when he does a backside ollie 180. He needs the rush. Unlike other addicts, Gray doesn't want to boot his 17-year habit. Quite the contrary. The 39-year-old is making great strides to recruit other addicts -- or even those on the brink of dependency -- to lobby the city for a park that will support their practice.

"God never promised you a Disneyland. He offers something better -- His own sustaining presence through any trouble you may encounter." -- Charles R. Swindoll I've heard from several readers about last week's column. For those of you who didn't read it, it was about the fact that as we travel through life, we will encounter painful low points, as well as joyful highlights. It's great to have people to share those times with, but in any case, God will always be there with us. One reader wrote about the personal pain in her life and said that though she believes in God, she has had many sad things happen to her. After reading her e-mail, I agree that she has had more than her share of bad situations happen.

MAXINE COHEN I was horrified when I read about the 17-year-old senior at Corona del Mar high school who committed suicide. How very, very sad. It is truly a tragedy when such a young person takes her own life. She had barely begun to live, and her life is now over. Her parents live on but they will grieve in the depths of a despair that most of us will never know -- thank goodness -- in our own lifetimes. Then there are siblings, teachers, friends and relatives, whose lives have been irretrievably touched.

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in a six-part series about war veterans who are members of UC Irvine’s Veterans Student Union .   Expecting to see family and friends soon, a unit of soldiers takes a break in front of a Post Exchange in an Iraqi base. But not all of them make it home. Mortar fire is common in Iraq. It’s random, the targeting is frantic, and most soldiers learn to live with it as an everyday occurrence. The blasts usually inflict more panic than harm.

IRVINE - UC Irvine men's volleyball coach John Speraw spoke of the future during a celebration of the 2012 NCAA champion Anteaters in front of about 300 on campus on Tuesday. But whether that future will be at UCI, UCLA, or exclusively with the U.S. men's national team will not be known for at least a few weeks, said Speraw, whose 10-year tenure at the school has produced a legacy of three national titles in the last six seasons. UCI Chancellor Michael Drake addressed the crowd and saluted both the team and Speraw, whom he said he admires as much as any leader on campus.

If you feel like the ping of an email pulls you away from that deadline you're trying to reach, you're not alone. According to a recent UC Irvine study, employees who were constantly plugged in to email were less focused, multitasked more often and had a higher stress levels than their unplugged counterparts. Researchers cut off 13 employees — including a chemical engineer, materials scientist, psychologist, biologist and food technologist — from email for five days after monitoring their normal activity for three.

With the veil lifted, theater buffs were some of the first to see inside the renovated Port Theater during the building's sneak preview Saturday.  The historic Corona del Mar film house hosted filmmaking seminars during the annual Newport Beach Film Festival.  Audience members oohed and aahed as wood-paneled doors opened to the public for the first time since the theater closed in 1998. One of the few remaining single-screen cinemas, the Port was originally built in the 1950s.

The greatest deficiency of any bureaucracy is its inability to adapt to change or to anticipate problems. But that's what makes them bureaucracies. If they were able to adapt to change, or get ahead of a curve, we wouldn't call them bureaucracies; we'd call them Apple, Google or Disney. So it should come as no surprise that a significant portion of the search process for a new Newport-Mesa Unified schools superintendent includes a series of "community input" meetings that are supposed give us common folk a stake in the decision.

Sometimes we don't really know whom we've married until there is some challenge that reveals what we wish we'd known during courtship or we experience something that supports our good decision to have married that person. I learned all I needed to know about my wife, Cay, the day after we were married Feb. 22, 1987. It rained most of the day. Our outdoor wedding at El Adobe restaurant in San Juan Capistrano was moved inside to the ballroom. We didn't mind the rain because we'd planned a skiing honeymoon in Lake Tahoe and figured that showers here meant snow there.

NEWPORT BEACH — If the walls of this beachside jazz joint could talk, oh, the story they would tell. Those walls of The Blue Beet date back 100 years, but the music venue and restaurant near the Newport Pier over the years has been shaped by much more than just jazz and steaks, said Scott Lewis, the general manager. "It's been around for a long time, serving as a hangout in one way or another," said Lewis, 32, whose father bought the Blue Beet in the early 1980s, sold it, then re-purchased it in the late '90s.

I've been going to see Bill Medley since he and Bobby Hatfield did the club circuit back in the '60s. He was always my favorite Righteous Brother, though Bobby was a soulful inspiration too. But it was Bill's deep, velvety smooth and emotionally stirring bass-baritone, displayed most hauntingly in songs like "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin,'" that sent me directly to heaven when, as a high school virgin, I stopped breathing and melted into the...

SANTA ANA - The chant at the end of the quarter break is not unfamiliar for the CdM Aquatics 18-and-under girls' team. It's the same as the one the Sea Kings use during the high school season. Senior-to-be Pippa Saunders instructs her teammates to yell "Corona win!" on the count of three. Fellow senior-to-be Alex Musselman counts to three before the whole team yells it, "Corona win!" But in terms of saves, the goalie Musselman definitely didn't stop at three Saturday afternoon at Foothill High.

The so-called lending pipeline that has been clogged for so long, considered by many a top reason for lackluster home sales, may get worse come October - or possibly sooner. The federal government has decided the size of loans eligible for government backing will go down in October. That's a step back from a temporary hike made three years ago, when Congress raised the maximum loan guarantee that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and federal agencies aimed at boosting the beleaguered market.

MIDWAY CITY — For Pete Carolan, the killing of Osama bin Laden was a full-circle moment. The Irvine artist spent almost two decades in the Navy SEALs, the specialized combat wing that conducted the May 1 nighttime raid on the Al Qaeda leader's Pakistan hideaway. In 2000, Carolan painted a 150-foot mural of military scenes in the American Legion Hall in Midway City, titled "For God and Country. " According to media reports, the ground commander of the SEAL Team 6 unit that carried out the mission uttered the same phrase in radioing in the news that his commandoes had killed "Geronimo," the operational code name for Bin Laden.