by Bela Johnson | May 28, 2013 | family, happiness, personal, relationships, Uncategorized
I’m afraid of going home. Clad in layers of Sherpa wear purchased at an outdoor store to keep me warm and waterproof in Portland, I feel out of place boarding a plane bound for the Hawaiian Islands. While I’m homeward bound, excited visitors gather in flip-flops,...
by Bela Johnson | May 21, 2013 | family, love, musings, personal, relationships, Uncategorized
My mother kept things. She didn’t quite know what to do with people: seven children; two husbands; countless grand- and great-grandchildren. She also rescued or fostered several dogs and a few cats in her almost eighty-nine years. She might have made it to...
by Bela Johnson | May 8, 2013 | family, personal, poetry, relationships, Uncategorized
She doesn’t want to let me go – it’s in the blood. Like cells, we divide, move apart; couple up with others, and revel in the familiar of an original template: family. Our mother is leaving us, hysterical now with dementia. It’s fun to watch her laugh, as we...
by Bela Johnson | Jan 24, 2013 | family, personal, philosophy, poetry, popular culture
I was five then, as we crowded around the black and white TV, watching patterns on a blank screen labeled THIS IS JUST A TEST. When the high-pitched drone became unbearable, we reluctantly switched it Off. Now we have color and vexing bands of text endlessly scrolling...
