A couple of years ago, I discovered a publication called Bella Grace. It’s a thick, perfect bound magazine on quality paper. There are no ads. The photos are soft and the ideas are sharp.
It’s timeless and well done.
Basically, it’s the opposite of everything else that’s popular these days.
They aren’t selling products and ways to fix yourself. They are shining a light on calm and beauty in this world. They give you stories and writing prompts to make you think. Reader submissions are creative, thought provoking and sometimes so familiar it’s exciting to know there are others out there who think like you. It’s also sometimes mindset changing to read thoughts from people who are different. This is how we learn.
Bella Grace is about making the everyday special and making hard days easier. It’s about making the good stuff magical.
In short, it’s a soothing balm for my nervous system that I didn’t even know I needed.
I’ve only seen it in two stores in Ohio – Barnes and Noble and Joseph Beth Booksellers on Cincinnati so it feels like a special occasion when get to pick one up. It ain’t cheap but it’s not a throw away piece either. I keep my past issues lined up together on a bookshelf and always have one or two lying around the house. They are great rereads because you always spot something new.
They also publish a companion piece called “Bella Grace Field Guide To Everyday Magic.” The new one is more than 130 pages of quotes, worksheets, lists and writing prompts to recall memories, make you think, spark creativity and to help you view your world differently.
One prompt asks in what ways you are like your five year old self. Another is what books you think everyone should read. Others deal with everyday beauty in common things, adventuring in the world and the loveliness of being a homebody.
Perspective is a huge theme because the things some find workaday can be viewed by someone else as having great value.
There’s a two page spread with 31 blocks – a calendar with no dates, if you will. Each block is an inch square. The prompt is to write something about every day. It can’t be too long and can be just snippets like “dark and rainy, read Frankenstein, laughed with a friend.”
This time I’m using mine to write something good that happened every day. Most days are easy. Some are really hard. That’s how life goes.
This week there were good things to report even on the hard days. In fact, it felt like the hard days outnumbered the good. But, as I sit here looking back over the week, it’s hard to focus on the bad when there was so much good. Just this week, I had porch suppers on pretty nights, saw the governor speak at the ribbon cutting of an amazing new community college facility here in my hometown, saw a rainbow, and my dad rescued a kitten from a tree because he’s a really good guy.
That’s not too shabby.
I think half the problem with this world is that people focus too much on the bad and on what scares them. That’s certainly understandable given the social injustices, cruelty, anti- intellectualism, mental health struggles, poverty, closed mindedness, inflation, and narcissism of the general population that exists every day of the week.
Don’t get me wrong. I think about those things too and I worry we are on exactly the wrong path toward the future. Worst of all, I can’t change it. I can only change myself and try to be a role model for decency.
Bella Grace feels like the escape that everyone needs and most people don’t want right now. it’s certainly the escape I need. Less stimulation, prejudice, anger, and all around cruelty and more calm, kindness, and thoughtfulness both inward and toward the perspectives of others are a good start toward a better world.
Be the change you wish to see.
And if you get a chance, pick up an issue of Bella Grace and see what you think! As for me and the 31 days of good things, I’m almost done with my available space. It has been good for my mental health so I think I’ll find another way to keep doing it!
Saturday brought an unexpected storm here on the ridge. After a long day of chores that kept me busy (even though it looks like nothing was done), I was glad for a one pot meal and dinner on the screened-in porch.
It was already a nice evening and then the rain began. It was hard and the gutters barely kept up. My fella and I reveled in this gift from Nature and the way it ushered in cooler air.
And when it ended, there was a rainbow.
I was proud of myself for trotting right out the front door to stand in the yard in my bare feet. This is a big deal for me since I rarely go outside without shoes since stepping on a bee as a kid. But I needed a closer look and there’s no time to spare where rainbows are concerned.
I reveled in the soft, squishy wet grass between my toes and wondered why I don’t do this more. The wet grass was cool and calming.
Summer would be better if it were always like this. And every day would be better if there were a rainbow to enjoy. A new workweek begins today. Enjoy it, friends!
I am not an especially fast reader but I am a devoted one. There have actually been times in my life that I struggled to read – distracted by other things, too tired, and exhausted after my time as an English major at Ohio University – but I never forgot my drive to read.
It has been a bit of a journey for me but has always been important in my life.
When I was quite small, before I could even read, my mother budgeted for a Little Golden Book every time we went to the grocery store. We would start at the Little Golden Book rack so I could pick out a new one. I would sit in the cart, looking at the pictures while she shopped and she would read it to me when we got home. This was quite smart, a distraction that kept me from requesting things not in the budget and instilling in me excitement over new books.
Scholastic book fairs and the monthly flyer we could order from at school were the only good things about school by my estimation. I was shy and typically panicked when called on in class. To this day, most of my classmates probably remember me as an imbecile but I was an imbecile with a decent home library.
An only child living in the country, books were my friends in the absence of other kids. They kept me company, inspired my imagination, and made me curious about writing.
Actually, they made me curious about everything.
As an English major, I read constantly. It was nothing to consume a novel, a Shakespearean tragedy, and fifteen or twenty short stories in a single week. Unfortunately, required reading and all the necessary writing left no time for fun reading. My brain felt bruised long after graduation.
This is actually how I discovered Harry Potter one Winter break. This was back when OU was still on quarters and break lasted from Thanksgiving until January. I devoured those books because they provided the ultimate escape from reality,
After graduation, I gradually began reading for fun again but found myself in ruts that lasted years where I did little more than sit still and hold the book. It was like a worry stone or maybe just a good old fashioned security blanket.
Many years have passed. I still experience periods when I can’t calm my mind enough to read but have been doing well for the last several years. Covid was great for me because I had plenty of time to read and the only adventures available were through the pages of books.
I use the library some and am a huge supporter of libraries. In Ohio, libraries are free to use and anyone can have a library card. Books and audiobooks for all tastes, periodicals, local history materials, events and even items are available to borrow for FREE.
What a gift! I’m glad to see my tax dollars paying for something society needs.
But I mostly prefer to own my books. I like to be the first person to crack open a book and learn its secrets. They’re like little friends waiting to share something special.
I like their cover art and the way they smell. I like the feel of paper in my hands and the weight of it in my bag. I almost always have a book in my bag or beside me on the couch, at the kitchen table or on the front seat of the car.
And that’s how I’m able to read so much. It’s not that I speed read. It’s that I’m an opportunist who prioritizes reading. Doctors’ offices are great places to read while you wait. In the car before an appointment, while eating lunch at my desk, on the porch after work, as I drift off to sleep in bed – these are great reading opportunities.
Entire days will pass without ever seeing the TV turned on in my house. Sometimes I turn on M.A.S.H. reruns in the evenings because I know it all by heart and it’s great noise in the house. It’s also easy background noise for reading
I used to be really fussy about selecting my next book. I’m a mood reader, after all. But it could take me days to choose my next read. These days, I tend to pick up something I’ve been looking forward to and jump right in. If it doesn’t resonate in the first few pages, it typically goes back to the stack of favor of something else.
I’ll come back to it another day.
I also like to switch up my genres. Since I read historical fiction, literary fiction, thrillers, mysteries, Appalachian fiction, nonfiction, self help and even fantasy, I can change genres to make sure every book is different than the last and feels fresh. It’s a form of palette cleansing.
Thanks to these habits, I guarantee that reading is part of my every day.
My goal this year is to read 100 books. Will I make it? Who knows and who cares? Meeting the goal isn’t the point at all. Neither is speeding through books so I can.
The point is to keep myself immersed in new worlds and with characters who teach me things and tell me stories. The goal simply keeps me reading and that’s all that matters.
I hit the clearance jackpot at Half Price Books last weekend, bringing home a large bag of books I am eager to read for just $3 each. Honestly, I’ve run out of shelf space again but I don’t care. I like to be surrounded by books – someone put imagination and clarity into their ideas so they could be bound up in pretty covers for others to enjoy.
Why wouldn’t I want them around?
I tend to think of my bookshelves like a wine cellar. You bring home a bottle of wine for the perfect occasion. I do the same with my books.
I will read them when the time is right.
There are some I revisit occasionally. Others I may never revisit in their entirety but will flip through them and read excerpts. They’re all here if I need them. Good friends, they are.
I’m at 59 books for the year and it’s only June so I’m a little ahead of schedule. I’m adventuring a lot less this year to pay for my bathroom remodel so there’s more reading time.
I’ve enjoyed most everything I’ve read this year and that’s the whole point. I’ve DNF’d a few – that’s reader talk for “Did Not Finish.” Every book isn’t for everyone so I pass on the ones I know I won’t want to revisit later.
People act like reading and physical books are dead but I beg to differ. There are lots of bookish events, literary festivals, Facebook groups, and bookstores packed with folks happy to browse and talk books.
I saw a literal fight break out in a readers group on Facebook the other day over audio books. The question was whether audio books count as reading. When I say fight, I mean that if we were in the same room, there would have been a switch blade and some hair pulling involved.
Yikes.
Do audiobooks count? Once again, does it really matter? When I consume a book via audiobook, I always clarify that I listened to it. I do think there’s a difference between reading words on a page and listening to someone tell you a story. When my mother read to me and I listened, I wasn’t reading.
But the consumption of books and ideas is the most amazing thing in the world, if you ask me. And if you prefer to listen or need to listen instead of hold the book, I think that’s terrific. Do that.
No need for a fistfight in the girls’ room.
And I hope that if you are a reader you are also a person who shares book recommendations with friends and, especially with non-readers who need a reason to get excited enough about a story to read or listen for themselves.
It’s never too late to get excited about reading!
So I’ll keep pushing through my endlessly growing stacks. At the rate I’m going, I have enough unread books to keep me entertained for the better part of three years.
But don’t worry. I still brake for bookstores and will continue offering a safe space for all those homeless, friendless books on the shelves.
Are you a reader? Tell me about your preferences when it comes to books and reading! This is a judgment free zone (unless you dog ear) and all are welcome. There will be no fistfights over audiobooks on my watch!
Is there anything more decadent than the combination of books and waffles? There is if you add in a sunset drive home with your fella while listening to a podcast about a book.
He and I made a spontaneous trip for books and waffles last night. There’s something about Barnes and Noble that feels so calming and civilized that I immediately feel my blood pressure start to drop. I prefer a good independent bookseller but I like the larger inventory and spacious aisles of the B&N.
I finally bought something I’ve been picking up and putting down for a while.
Waffle House was a little noisy for my taste as the young men running the place had their tunes cranked up. But I couldn’t be upset when they started dancing while they worked. How can you be cranky when you see people having that much fun at work?
On the way home, the sky began to shift from a pretty blue to delicate streaks of pinks, peaches, and lavenders. It was a perfect ending to a perfect evening.
This is the sky over Vinton County Ohio’s Bicentennial Barn. Isn’t it lovely?
Incidentally, I was a cub reporter when the Ohio Bicentennial Commission was painting these barns many, many years ago.
That’s actually how I connected with my Pittsburgh friend Nichola. She was working for the state at the time, the liaison connecting people and rallying communities behind this project to paint a barn in every one of Ohio’s 88 counties. She is a southern Ohio native about my age.
She and I hit it off after meeting just a couple of times. Alas, life took us in different directions and her husband’s job caused them to move to Texas before settling down in her peaceful Pittsburgh neighborhood.
It was a chance encounter on Facebook that reunited us several years ago. Since then, she’s seen me through some challenging times, we’ve traveled together, and shared a lot of laughs. We’ve also shared a few sunrises and sunsets.
It’s funny how people come and go from your life but the right people return exactly when you need them.
I thought about that on my way home and how lucky I am to have good days like this and people who understand me to enjoy it all with.
In case no one has ever mentioned it, try to catch a good sunset or sunrise once in a while. It’s good for your health. And while the waffles aren’t great for your health and maybe another bookstore trip isn’t good for your wallet, they’re good for you too – in their own way.
Friends, pay attention to the comings and goings of the sun, connect with the old friend, take the drive, eat the waffles and do all the things that make your heart happy.