by Bela Johnson | Oct 22, 2025 | food, freedom, healing, lifestyle, Uncategorized
What heals one body may harm another.The raw becomes too cold for the weary stomach,the stillness too rigid for the restless heart. Even meditation can bruise the spiritif what we need is to walk, to breathe,to kneel in the garden’s forgiving dirt. Food is medicine,...
by Bela Johnson | Sep 29, 2025 | community, compassion, food, gardening, sustainability, Uncategorized
Today it was from shelling macadamia nuts,given to us by a friend with a tree—boxfulls of them.No store-bought nutcracker will do;you must buy a cottage-industry devicecosting over a hundred dollars,and crack them one at a time. First remove the husk(commercial...
by Bela Johnson | Oct 4, 2016 | family, food, lifestyle, musings, Uncategorized
Bread by hand is baked in oven, tapped out gently, further cooling, placed in storage, bagged and ready, then is toasted days and after, to a crisp and even browning; Edges blackened, flash of silver knife is peeling curls of butter loose from glass jar, lying gently...
by Bela Johnson | Jul 8, 2014 | food, lifestyle, musings, nature, poetry, Uncategorized
Reclining in wrapping indifferent to its contents, the tidy row of portobellos lies chilling; scaly surfaces restricted by saran to fit, shipped far from forest understory now gasping for breath through tiny puncture-perfect holes. Carefully pulling free vulgar...
by Bela Johnson | Jan 21, 2014 | food, lifestyle, psychology, random thoughts, Uncategorized
Every day around three or four, I get hungry. When I tap into my core, it’s not so much that I’m ravenous; rather it feels like there is a need I’m trying to fill, and food is most convenient. Perhaps you share my sentiments. If I harken back to...
by Bela Johnson | Apr 2, 2013 | food, Hawaii, lifestyle, personal, Uncategorized
Strange ritual, this gorging on holidays. Course after course – for we have paid dearly for them – slides down the hatch in habitual response to colors, textures, tastes. The floor is flagstone; the chairs in this grand old hotel are plastic, of all...
