Mill Valley, nestled at the base of Mt. Tamalpais, exudes charm with its natural surroundings, quaint local businesses and eclectic arts scene. Incorporated in 1900 with 900 residents, today the population has swelled to over 14,000. Trek to the waterfall at Cascade Falls, window shop downtown or enjoy a free Shakespeare performance at Old Mill Park’s amphitheater and you’ll understand why folks flock to Mill Valley.

If you ask a local the main reason they made Mill Valley their home, you’ll probably hear the word proximity. Whether they live on a steep hilltop or in a lush valley, they’re just minutes away from some of the most prized settings in the world: Muir Woods, Mt. Tam and the edge of the Pacific Ocean, all located within the Mill Valley zip code.

The primeval redwood forest in Muir Woods, situated on Redwood Creek, is a top destination for Bay Area visitors. Amazingly, the tallest tree in Muir Woods is about 250 feet tall and estimated to be around 780 years old. Advance parking or shuttle reservations are now required. It’s an extra step, but well worth it.

The highest peak in Marin is Mt. Tam, “the Sleeping Lady,” at an elevation of 2,572 feet. Spectacular vistas of San Francisco and even the Farallon Islands on a clear day reward hikers and mountain bikers who make the pilgrimage to the summit.

Take the 1.7-mile hike on Tennessee Valley Trail and you’ll end up at the Pacific Ocean. The scenery is glorious, with the secluded beach flanked by rock cliffs.

Stolte Grove and the adjacent garden are two of the many hidden gems in Mill Valley. Located in the Homestead Valley neighborhood, the park contains a redwood stand with a creek running beside it. The lavish gardens next door showcase dozens of huge hydrangea bushes and trumpet vines growing wild.

Residents love that they don’t need to cross the bridge for big city culture. This little city is home to annual events including the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival and Mountain Play, a live musical theatre production at Mt. Tam’s outdoor amphitheater.

The O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, a community art center presenting programs in the visual, literary and performing arts, is celebrating its 50th year. Located on a two-and-a-half acre campus, the pièce de résistance of the property is the sculpture garden with works by Dick O’Hanlon. There’s also an art gallery open to the public with juried shows that feature local artists and change monthly.

For evening entertainment, check out the calendar at Sweetwater Music Hall and dance the night away to live music from rappers to rockers. If professional live theatre in an intimate venue is more your style, try the Marin Theatre Company, where the west coast premiere of Sovereignty is now playing. The Throckmorton Theatre, an art center, offers a diverse lineup of live music, comedy and workshops in a beautifully restored theatre. Or perhaps you’d prefer to see a film at The Sequoia Theatre, a 1920s movie house showing the latest flicks and the Live in HD Metropolitan Opera series.

Before going out on the town, visit one of its many fine restaurants. No matter what you have a hankering for, you’ll find a Mill Valley eatery serving it.

Downtown is home to first-rate fare at new and established restaurants. The recently opened Gravity Tavern serves robust meat and fish dishes and not-to-be-missed tater tots. The 55-year-old La Ginestra, known for its Neapolitan cuisine and handmade pasta, is the perfect place for a family meal.

A new favorite is the Watershed Restaurant located in the Lumber Yard, which is built on the site of Mill Valley’s first sawmill. With community seating and a lovely outdoor patio, the ambience feels welcoming. Chef Kyle Swain changes the California cuisine menu frequently, based on what’s available from local farms, ranches and fisheries. I thoroughly enjoyed the signature dish—halibut crudo with avocado, cucumber, horseradish green and lemon oil. The thick cut fries with aioli were also delicious.

The Dipsea Café on Shoreline Highway overlooks Coyote Creek. An abundance of natural light graces their country kitchen décor, creating a lovely spot for brunch. For a sweet treat, try the cheese blintzes with orange zest-cheese filling, blueberry-strawberry sauce and sour cream. Before you leave, take a gander at the historic photos of Mill Valley adorning the walls.

Across the road, the Shoreline Coffee Shop has dished up a mix of American and Mexican food since 1962. The avocado toast is yummy and their breakfast burrito is always tasty.

Travel a few blocks up the street and savor the dining experience at the Buckeye Roadhouse. House specialties include oysters bingo, chili-lime brick chicken and smoked beef brisket from their on-site smokehouse. You can also eat your meal in their warm and inviting bar.

If you’d rather cook, head to the 90-year-old Mill Valley Market, locally owned and operated by the Canepa family for four generations. Much of their produce is locally sourced, such as greens from Green Gulch Farms and honey from Mill Valley beehives. They have an outstanding selection of hard-to-find European items including Kinder chocolates, Branston Pickle and Duerr’s marmalade. The extensive wine selection includes bottles from California and all over the world. If you’re more of a beer person, they carry over 400 brands. Mosey down the aisles to see what delicacies you’ll uncover.

Don’t spend all of your time eating, though. Unique shops abound in Mill Valley. One that strikes my fancy is Mad Dogs & Englishmen Bike Shop in the Lumber Yard. Their inventory consists of modern reproductions of classic English touring bikes. E-bikes rule in this store. I covet the Ruffian, handcrafted in Germany, or maybe the Elby with a range of 90 miles on one charge.

Also in the Lumber Yard is Lulu Designs, a jewelry store and working studio with an all-female team of master metalsmiths. Owner Stacy “Lulu” King uses gemstones from India and a proprietary blend of bronze in her pieces, which owe inspiration to botanicals and textiles.

ToyHouse, a specialty store for children, is a great place to find just the right gift for the kid who has everything. Their collection includes toys, games, trains, dolls and everything else a youngster dreams about. Locally owned and operated, ToyHouse makes shopping easy by providing a place for kids to play while you browse and by offering complimentary gift wrapping.

Before we finish our journey, there’s one place you can’t miss: the Mill Valley Library. The award-winning building boasts floor to ceiling windows delivering views of redwoods and the creek. The cozy, wood-burning fireplace is usually roaring when the temperature dips. Free After Hours events include wine and free classes taught by instructors with remarkable credentials. I’ll be at the Naked Truth event this Friday sipping a glass of red while watching live storytellers perform sans script.

I don’t live in Mill Valley, but I sure spend a lot of time there. Whether I want to kick up my heels or spend the day relaxing, I always discover something delightful to do in Mill Valley. You will, too.

email: ni***************@***il.com

Q: I’m in a weird place in my life: My work situation’s up in the air, and there’s a lot of uncertainty in my romantic life and my living situation. Friends are telling me to be patient and live in the moment, but I’m finding all of this not knowing extremely upsetting. Is there anything I can do to feel less anxious?—Distressed

A: When everything seems uncertain, it’s easy to go really dark: “Please forward my mail to the refrigerator box in the underpass where I’ll soon be living with my fiance, the cat.”

Decision researchers have consistently found that we humans have a strong “ambiguity aversion” or “uncertainty aversion.” We get seriously unsettled by the big foggy monster of the unknown: not knowing what’s going to happen or not having enough information or expertise to reasonably predict it.

As for what’s going on under the hood, brain-imaging research by neuroeconomist Ming Hsu and his colleagues found that the amygdala—an area of the brain tasked with spotting threats and mobilizing our response to them—was more activated in response to “ambiguity.”

This freakout by our brain’s Department of Homeland Security was a good fit in the ancestral times in which it evolved. These days, however, we’re living in a world vastly safer than the one our psychology is adapted for.

To tamp down the queasiness of uncertainty, verbalize your fears. Research by neuroscientist Matthew Lieberman suggests this depowers the amygdala by putting the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s reasoning center, to work. Tell the story of your worst fear in each of your uncertain situations: Your boss not only fires you but chases you out of the building with a broom. Then, carrying a box of your stuff, you come home to your roommate in bed with your boyfriend. Then you go out for a beer, only to return to a smoking pile of ash where your apartment used to be.

Obviously, you’d prefer that none of this happen. However, you aren’t unemployable or unloveable, you have friends with couches and there’s Airbnb.

Q: I’m in my late 40s. I’ve noticed many of my friends reconnecting with, and marrying, people they knew years ago—sometimes friends, sometimes exes. Is everybody just desperate, or is dating all about timing?—Wondering

A: In your early 20s, you know what’s vitally important in a partner: that he doesn’t have “weird nostrils” or wear a belt buckle with his own name on it.

Then you do some living and maybe get shredded by a relationship or two, and your preferences change. In short, context matters. Context is simply your personal circumstances, and it includes factors like your own mate value and whether you’re in a hurry to have a baby before your ovaries retire to a cabin.

It turns out that when looking for partners, we have a budget. It works like it does at the supermarket. You can buy the finest steak and lobster and then starve for the rest of the month, or you can shop more in the Top Ramen and lunchmeat arena and keep yourself consistently fed.

Evolutionary psychologist Norman Li applied this budgetary approach in researching partner preferences. Prior research had poor methodology, simply asking, “Hey, what do you want in a partner?” Well, if somebody asks you that—sky’s the limit!—what’s your answer? “Um, is Chris Hemsworth available? How ‘bout Liam?” But when you’re constrained, you have to make tradeoffs. You have to “buy” the important qualities first—“necessities” versus “luxuries,” as Li put it. When research participants were most constrained, intelligence and kindness were major priorities for both sexes.

This might explain why people in their 40s suddenly see something in people they tossed aside years ago or maybe just never thought of as partner material. Basically, at a certain point, many people give up on finding the exact right person and look for a right enough person.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In 1956, the U.S. federal government launched a program to build 40,000 miles of high-speed roads to connect all major American cities. It was completed 36 years later at a cost of $521 billion. In the coming months, I’d love to see you draw inspiration from that visionary scheme. According to my analysis, you will generate good fortune for yourself as you initiate a long-term plan to expand your world, create a more robust network and enhance your ability to fulfill your life’s big goals.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus-born Youtube blogger Hey Fran Hey has some good advice for her fellow Bulls, and I think it’ll be especially fresh and potent in the coming weeks. She says, “Replacing ‘Why is this happening to me?’ with ‘What is this trying to tell me?’ has been a game changer for me. The former creates a hamster wheel, where you’ll replay the story over and over again. Victimized. Stuck. The latter holds space for a resolution to appear.”

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “The soul has illusions as the bird has wings: it is supported by them.” So declared French author Victor Hugo. I don’t share his view. In fact, I regard it as an insulting misapprehension. The truth is that the soul achieves flight through vivid fantasies and effervescent intuitions and uninhibited longings and non-rational hypotheses and wild hopes—and maybe also by a few illusions. I bring this to your attention because now is an excellent time to nurture your soul with vivid fantasies and effervescent intuitions and uninhibited longings and non-rational hypotheses and wild hopes.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I know people of all genders who periodically unleash macho brags about how little sleep they need. If you’re normally like that, I urge you to rebel. The dilemmas and riddles you face right now are very solvable IF and only IF you get sufficient amounts of sleep and dreams. Do you need some nudges to do right by yourself? Neuroscientist Matthew Walker says that some of the greatest athletes understand that “sleep is the greatest legal performance-enhancing drug.” Top tennis player Roger Federer sleeps 12 hours a day. During his heyday, world-class sprinter Usain Bolt slept 10 hours a night and napped during the day. Champion basketball player LeBron James devotes 12 hours a day to the rejuvenating sanctuary of sleep.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Actor and dancer Fred Astaire was a pioneer in bringing dance into films as a serious art form. He made 31 musical films during the 76 years he worked and was celebrated for his charisma, impeccable technique and innovative moves. At the height of his career, from 1933 to 1949, he teamed up with dancer Ginger Rogers in the creation of 10 popular movies. In those old-fashioned days, virtually all partner dancing featured a male doing the lead part as the female followed. One witty critic noted that although Astaire was a bigger star than Rogers, she “did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and while wearing high heels.” According to my reading of the astrological omens, you may soon be called on to carry out tasks that are metaphorically comparable to those performed by Rogers.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Your No. 1 therapy in the coming weeks? Watching animals. It would be the healthiest thing you could undertake: relax into a generously receptive mode as you simply observe creatures doing what they do. The best option would be to surrender to the pleasures of communing with both domesticated AND wild critters. If you need a logical reason to engage in this curative and rejuvenating activity, I’ll give you one: It will soothe and strengthen your own animal intelligence, which would be a tonic gift for you to give yourself.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Every time my birthday season comes around, I set aside an entire day to engage in a life review. It lasts for many hours. I begin by visualizing the recent events I’ve experienced, then luxuriously scroll in reverse through my entire past, as if watching a movie starring me. It’s not possible to remember every single scene and feeling, of course, so I allow my deep self to highlight the moments it regards as significant. Here’s another fun aspect of this ritual: I bestow a blessing on every memory that comes up, honoring it for what it taught me and how it helped me become the person I am today. Dear Libra, now is an excellent time for you to experiment with a similar celebration.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Depression is when you think there’s nothing to be done,” writes author Siri Hustvedt. “Fortunately, I always think there’s something to be done.” I offer this hopeful attitude to you, Scorpio, trusting it will cheer you up. I suspect the riddles and mysteries you’re embedded in right now are so puzzling and complicated that you’re tempted to think there’s nothing you can do to solve them or escape them. But I’m here to inform you that if that’s how you feel, it’s only temporary. Even more importantly, I’m here to inform you that there is indeed something you can do, and you are going to find out what that is sooner rather than later.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “How inconvenient to be made of desire,” writes Sagittarian author Larissa Pham. “Even now, want rises up in me like a hot oil. I want so much that it scares me.” I understand what she means, and I’m sure you do, too. There are indeed times when the inner fire that fuels you feels excessive and unwieldy and inopportune. But I’m happy to report that your mood in the coming weeks is unlikely to fit that description. I’m guessing that the radiant pulse of your yearning will excite you and empower you. It’ll be brilliant and warm, not seething and distracting.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I envision the next 12 months as a time when you could initiate fundamental improvements in the way you live. Your daily rhythm 12 months from now could be as much as 20 percent more gratifying and meaningful. It’s conceivable you will discover or generate innovations that permanently raise your long-term goals to a higher octave. At the risk of sounding grandiose, I predict you’ll welcome a certain novelty that resembles the invention of the wheel or the compass or the calendar.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Modern literary critic William Boyd declared that Aquarian author Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) was “the best short-story writer ever,” and “the first truly modern writer of fiction: secular, refusing to pass judgment, cognizant of the absurdities of our muddled, bizarre lives and the complex tragi-comedy that is the human condition.” Another contemporary critic, Harold Bloom, praised Chekhov’s plays, saying that he was “one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre.” We might imagine, then, that in the course of his career, Chekhov was showered with accolades. We’d be wrong about that, though. “If I had listened to the critics,” he testified, “I’d have died drunk in the gutter.” I hope that what I just said will serve as a pep talk for you as you explore and develop your own original notions in the coming weeks.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Pisces-born Dorothy Steel didn’t begin her career as a film actress until she was 91 years old. She had appeared in a couple of TV shows when she was 89, then got a small role in an obscure movie. At age 92, she became a celebrity when she played the role of a tribal elder in Black Panther, one of the highest-grossing films of all time. I propose we make her one of your inspirational role models for both the coming weeks and the next 12 months. Why? Because I suspect you will be ripening fully into a role and a mission you were born to embody and express.

As the actor and singer Judy Garland, Renee Zellwegger is held in tight closeup: a bundle of nerves dosing herself with pills, mouth crooked and trembling, wincing from cigarette smoke and bad memories. Half the time in Judy, she knocks you out, half the time you want to knock her out. Starved down to a shadow, Zellwegger’s bag-of-bones Judy is a wraith in her final year working.

It’s 1968 and the 47-year-old is a huge star in London. Her insomnia and vast need for love tortures her. Her personal life is in smithereens; back in L.A., her ex-husband Sid Luft (perennial rotter Rufus Sewell) is trying to get custody of her two young children. Meanwhile, she’s courted by Mickey, a persistent younger man (Finn Wittrock) of such untrustworthiness that his very presence should set off every burglar alarm for blocks.

Zellwegger embodies—impersonates may be the correct term—Garland and her vast yearning for applause. But without the the amphetamine-fed megalomania you hear in the tapes Garland made to soothe herself. There she sounds more like Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Unlike Judy Davis’ superior 2001 version of Garland, this victim is missing the other half of what made the woman behind Dorothy Gale such a sacred monster, a chronic no-shower and a meltdowner.

Director Rupert Goold (of the James Franco-starring True Story, which also went in for multitudes of closeups; this theatrical vet seems to compose for television) delves for backstory in tinted postcard images of MGM, where Garland underwent a species of child abuse—overwork and over-medication.

On stage, after the film’s slow build, the performance of “By Myself” is just about perfect; well orchestrated and reflecting the dazzle Garland emitted. Also affecting is a very touching sequence about a late night with a pair of gay stage door johnnies (Andy Nyman and Daniel Cerquiera), who Judy flusters by revealing that their idol is just a lonely person who’d like to go get some dinner in a city that shuts down at 11pm. (Judy’s production design makes a point: Swinging London took place in a drab, decaying town that badly needed a coat of paint.)

The night closes with some 4am piano and a slow, torchy version of “Get Happy.”

There’s a word for a lot of Judy, and that word is schmaltz; I preferred the previous arrangement where she’d sing “Over the Rainbow” and we’d cry, rather than the role reversal here.

‘Judy’ is playing in limited release.