January | 2015 | Autumn Journal

I love Susannah Conway’s practice of posting a link list each week, Something For the Weekend. It’s like a chat with a good friend about the new books coming out and things you’ve seen and heard and want to share. She doesn’t expound on the links, just points us to a few things that we might want to see.

If you don’t know Susannah check out her blog, she’s got a very calm and unique way of looking at the world – and sharing it with us. She also has some pretty darned cool classes including Photo Meditations – registration opens February 4th and I have the date marked in my planner 🙂

I can remember Sunday mornings as a teen sitting in the cool, darkly paneled sanctuary of All Saints-by-the-Sea listening to Father Woodward deliver a homily that felt uncomfortably aimed at me. Sometimes it felt as though someone had been reading my journal, the message was so pointed and so exactly what I needed to hear, whether I wanted to or not. That connection with my core, with who I was and am in my most quiet and private places is what anchored me in my faith life.

I have a similar, although less holy, core connection with Bella Grace, the newest offering from Stampington & Company. The editors say “Bella Grace is a special publication devoted to discovering magic in the ordinary” and I have to agree. The aesthetic is one of muted colors, evocative images and rich matte paper, all elements I am drawn to.

On page 8 of the recent issue (Volume 1, Issue 2) D. Smith Kaich Jones speaks of silence and says “I even like my colors quiet.” Yes! I have often struggled to explain why I am drawn to the muted, the dusty, the … quiet… colors. My beautiful sister surrounds herself in luscious jewel tones and I understand why. But I like my colors quiet.

As an inveterate form filler-out-er and workbook lover the writing prompts with space to contribute right there, on the lovely page has me reaching for my pen again and again.

Without skimping on the imagery more attention is paid to the words in Bella Grace than in some other Stampington publications which focus on the images and the how-tos. As a word person that’s important to me.

This is a magazine that has stories on Silence, Wind, Water, Photography, Writing, Polishing the Silver Before Vacation, Musings on Grass and Savoring Chocolate all in one lovely package that fits in my work bag, lives on my nightstand and is becoming lovingly well thumbed.

Someone, somewhere has been reading my journal. How else can a magazine so perfectly curated for my tastes be explained?

For the record, I am in no way affiliated with Bella Grace or Stampington & Company. This isn’t a review, it’s an exploration, a thinking-through, maybe an homage. I have not been paid in any way for this post.