Ellé Bell Café

Story time in the cafe!

I'm sitting outside with a mug of coffee, and it's February in SC. Mid fifties, crisp, damp. The squirrels have been foraging for acorns and nuts. About this time of year, pickings are slim. Diesel is protective of the yard, denying access to all trespassing squirrels. Over time this has turned into a game between the squirrels being bandits, and the mean old sheriff driving the mad gunmen outta his town!

It goes on all year round,...

It was only at that one single place that I could have possibly been as I rounded the curve driving home from work, innoccently minding my own business, to be in direct line-of-sight of the entire front of his body as he grabbed tightly to an opportunity he only thought he had... Siezing,  in more ways than one, the only moment to physically turn away for the type of adjustments that only a true gentleman could never make in front of guests. Reflecting now, I am not q...

These are excerpts from random pages of my journals over several phases of my life's different paths. Life is full of love, and pain. Share in my facepalm experiences then run full steam, to trip down the path that eventually leads to wisdom. This is what makes you so unique, and special my friend! My path and your path are in some ways the same, and together we can learn from each other. I have receieved encouraging and loving comments in sweet private messages,...

The truth is, there is just something about writing, unspoiled by the spoken word, vocal inflections or interpretation. Thought in it's purest form. When they were younger, my kids would love to hear me spin a web of tales to engage and enthrall a rebelliously weary 6 year old at bedtime, but only some of my stories can be told in that way. 

Most of those things tip toeing through my head are more vibrantly formed and able to b...

Locked deep inside a sullen spot in my heart, a dream silently lingered. Suffocating the hope out of that dream, it was slowly dying inside the walls I built around it. Days and months crawled by, even years, and the belief that I could touch the sky withered until finally it began the process of relinquishing the hold it had on me. Thoughts, beliefs and emotions bared themselves without their protective cover to keep them safe, and exposed they lay naked to the elements they s...

The other day a woman I work with came up to me and whispered," Is the man you been dating, is he... well, is he a black man?" The air was thick with her discomfort and I stood there for a minute soaking it in. "Why do you ask?", I was curious. "Oh don't make no matter no how, I just heard something and wondered if it was true is all..."

Being raised in vanilla farm country as a corn fed white girl in a predominantly English speaking white community,...

In my minds eye I imagined sweet, gentle tropical breezes gently blowing through my hair set against a secluded white sandy beach backdrop where the foamy ocean waves symphony plays natures concerto. This is the goal, I think to myself in the days preceding my departure. Yes, this is the goal. Of course I have the body of Nicki Manaj and blond flowing mane of Shakira, but still - yes, this is the goal.

One may suspect that this being my first real va...

As my kitchen painting project winds down on day 2, my not-20-year-old-anymore back is telling me to ditch the ladder and stay on the floor a while. I look around my new kitchen to see the sunshine yellow walls now sporting “toasted coconut”, and I am loving it. While I stand there in the middle of my kitchen in my underwear, paint roller in hand, I think back to yesterday.

I was standing tall on a ladder to reach the tip top of the wall...

Dear little boy or girl, or maybe both,

I don't know you, for you haven't yet been born. Today your mom and dad have asked me to become a part in a very beautiful happening. My name is John Eitel and though we haven't had a chance to meet yet a very important thing has happened already.

Today just so happens to be a very beautiful day out. The ...