September 2020 Issue

Bella Book Host: Changing Ways We Consume Literature

As I have mentioned before, I am a huge fan of Audible. As a mom of two dancers, I spend a lot of time driving and waiting. Audible allows me to access a nearly endless list of audio books from my phone, in the car, in the studio waiting room, and while sewing. For a monthly charge I receive a limited number of credits included in my plan. This month, after realizing I had already used my credits catching up on speculative fiction series involving dragons and talking ships, I evaluated my options. I keep my in-person shopping limited these days, but Amazon had print and Kindle versions available, and

The August Bella Book Club Review | The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo | Aiken Bella Magazine

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

The August Bella Book Club Review by Nichole Miller Samuel Hill was teased and bullied as a child due to his unique eyes. He was born with ocular albinism, which caused his eyes to appear red. This led to names such as “devil boy,” and Sam Hill became Sam Hell. His only friends were Ernie Cantwell and Mickie Kennedy, and they stuck by his side. Ernie was the only black boy in their Catholic school, and Mickie was known for breaking all the rules. A group of misfits, they showed that compassion and friendship can break all barriers. This book dares to question how many times someone can be told

What’s Next?

What’s next has many answers, but they fall into two categories: the areas beyond our control, and those that we can control. We can control our planning and who will help us make good decisions. Have you heard that pain is often beneficial? When we stop and realize this, awe know that it makes sense. I’m not sure about how you feel, but most of us do not like pain and will go to a lot of effort to avoid it. There are many situations in which we are dealing with the hurt of pain and we pray to have it taken away, but long-term, we are better off having

Imagine being in stars with Butterflies

We can fill our time of living “in stars” with kindness and justice and all good things and right actions. They’re called “instars.” And they’re phases of time in the life of an insect. I think it is a perfectly compelling name, a perfectly intriguing idea. Instars. In … stars. As if it is time spent inside a star. Instars are, in fact, those times of living and being that take place between two transitional stages of an insect’s development — between two periods of molting. Like the times between when a caterpillar transforms into a chrysalis, and when it transforms again from a chrysalis into a butterfly. Living in

A Return to Art and Music

An Evening of Art & Music • September 30 • 4:30 – 7:30 pm We, here at Bella, are excited about small scale events coming back to life. Not only have our beloved Bella Buzz pages been empty, but no events have occurred to fill the famous “Scene Around Town” section, leaving the pages of Bella empty of the faces of Aiken. A duo of women, Peggy Penland and Katy Lipscomb, are rallying for indoor/outdoor events featuring music, art, and community to entice us to get out and experience life. And so was born An Evening of Art & Music, scheduled for September 30, 4:30 – 7:30 pm. The past

Change

I’m 18 so I’m still young and I’m at a point in my life where everything is changing. So this month’s theme of change is kind of perfect. Almost everything is changing for me. School is completely changed. I am now a full-time college student at USCA!!! I am very excited to start my new life and the changes that come with it. College is very different from the freshman year that I expected — I was very much looking forward to being on campus and really experiencing campus life. When I was first told that we would not have school regularly on campus, I was very upset about the

Artist Spotlight | Canaan Peeples Joins Aiken Center for the Arts this Fall

Meet Aiken Center for the Arts’ (ACA) new music instructor, Canaan Peeples. Canaan joins ACA this fall and will be offering individual instruction programs for all skill levels on the guitar, bass, banjo, and mandolin. His experience gives the student the opportunity to choose the genre they want to learn, be it bluegrass, blues, rock, or classical. Canaan is a classically trained guitarist from Barnwell, South Carolina. He was endowed with an amazing talent for adding color to music with emotion and tone. At 30 years old, Canaan has over 25 years of performing and musical experience. He started playing guitar when he was only 3 years old, and his

Be The Change

“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” Mahatma Gandhi The September edition of Aiken Bella and Palmetto Bella are packed full of opportunities for growth and change — changing your mindset, changing your scenery, changing the way you do business,