by Bela Johnson | Mar 12, 2013 | happiness, healing, inspiration, personal, Uncategorized
It has been predicted: this is My Lucky Year. A once-in-a-lifetime return of the Water Snake, which blessed the annum of my birth. If I make it to 120 years of age, I’ll have another, but it’s not likely to happen. So of course I wait for money, good fortune,...
by Bela Johnson | Mar 6, 2013 | happiness, inspiration, philosophy, relationships, Uncategorized
It’s such a pleasure to witness friends who take advantage of a midlife shakeup and confront their fears in order to implement major lifestyle changes. I’m thinking of one acquaintance whom I have known for almost thirty years; one whose face appears lit from within...
by Bela Johnson | Feb 13, 2013 | compassion, happiness, inspiration, love, Uncategorized
I haven’t written a rhyming poem since I was a child! Sitting on my back lanai watching a painted gecko dipping into my spent teacup on a blissful, sunny Hawaiian winter day, I thought, ‘Why not have some fun?’ And so I offer up this little ditty....
by Bela Johnson | Jan 8, 2013 | animals, happiness, nature, philosophy, poetry, Uncategorized
Strange fruit – shape and husks like the mottled purple-white breasts of small dying birds, scattered on asphalt. Running together, life and death in the avenue. That we choose one over the other – fight like cancer to linger in this place – affirms...
by Bela Johnson | Dec 27, 2012 | culture, happiness, personal, philosophy, spirituality, Uncategorized
I strive to be happy. Honest, I do. But sometimes I have to ask myself completely and without guile, Is it happiness itself I seek? Or is it the process of striving that captivates me – the push/pull between satisfaction and all that fails to match expectations...
by Bela Johnson | Nov 9, 2012 | happiness, inspiration, lifestyle, nature, personal, philosophy, Uncategorized
This old Max Ehrmann poem is as relevant to me today as ever it was: Go placidly amidst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and...
