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Agood life is achieved with habits that bring happiness and well-being. Eat healthy. Move your body. Sleep well. Develop meaningful relationships. To those time-tested strategies I’ll add another. Cultivate kindness.

Three years of pandemic and lockdowns didn’t help a society well on its way to being far less connected and more self-absorbed.

One way out of this mess is for each of us to reconnect with the idea of shared kindness. It’s all about being aware of your impact on the world.

Scott’s Seafood on the River is a hidden gem for some, an old standby for others. Tucked away near Riverside Boulevard between Land Park and Pocket, Scott’s has delighted locals and travelers for 15 years.

Attached to the Westin hotel on the river, Scott’s hides in plain sight. Some readers may not think of heading to a hotel restaurant for a nice local meal. However, Scott’s Seafood on the River is independently owned by husband and wife Sigrid and Alan Irvine. They are independent from Westin and separate from other Scott’s in Folsom and the Bay Area.

The riverside location brings great views and Delta breezes to the dining room and patio. Earlier this year, it also brought the Army Corps of Engineers.

Soil Born Farms is the farm in the farm-to-fork capital.

Walking the farm at American River Ranch, off Chase Drive in Rancho Cordova, the bounty and its possibilities present themselves in powerful ways.

First, let’s admire the farm beds, prepared a year or two in advance with cover crops that promote carbon sequestration. Next, here’s an area soon to be planted in tall oaks. Nearby is a restored creek, cleared for salmon and steelhead spawning.

A walkway features hundreds of California native plants. An outdoor classroom is shaded by hanging grape clusters. At the demonstration garden, children find runner beans, sunflowers, peppers and tomatoes flush for picking.

When the Sacramento Greek Festival returns for its 60th year Oct. 6–8 at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation across from McKinley Park, it won’t just be a celebration of Greek food, music and culture.

It will be a celebration of decades—and generations—of community.

“Everyone has something to do,” says Sophie Theodore, one of the festival’s longest-serving volunteers. “Some people make the sweets, some do the main dishes, someone makes sure the rice isn’t mushy. We even have the teenagers clean the tables.”

In every city with a decent daily newspaper, historic decisions swirled around the building where journalism was conceived, produced, printed and distributed.

That was certainly true at 21st and Q streets. For seven decades, the Bee reported on political scandals, natural disasters, athletic achievements, social shifts and horrific crimes. Stories from the paper’s Midtown headquarters impacted generations.

In my 16 years at the Bee, I was fortunate to work with many talented journalists at 21st and Q. I covered elections, earthquakes, floods and murders—endless human accomplishments and failings. It’s natural that I feel melancholy when I see the Bee building today, silent and empty.