Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh

Category: Miscellany

Anything that’s on my mind.

  • Episode IV: Lunch at Rainbow Bakery

    Lunch at Rainbow Bakery (Click here.)

    73eea028ace6869003bb394a78d4e400It’s after a wintry weekend, and the boys of Avonlea met together at Rainbow Bakery for lunch. It’s their elbow room where they can sit down with a set of delicious food, always freshly cooked on premise by Mrs. Lompstrompf according to her old world recipes from her grandmother in Norway and enjoy their time there as long as they like. In terms of the food, Anika, Mrs. Lompstrompf’s only granddaughter who can speak both Norwegian and English thanks to her grandmother’s bilingual teaching since she was a toddler, always adds a great touch of many inventive flavors to the food. In fact, were it not for Anika’s delightful fusion of diverse flavors from all over the world, the little ones would not make Rainbow Bakery their yummy den.

    There was also Sally at the bakery after a visit to her doctor’s office on Kingsbridge Avenue early this morning.  Sally had been suffering from an unfortunate case of abscess on her neck. It gathered and burst 5 days ago, which lessened the pain considerably. She thought that there would be no need to see a doctor for such because she could be healed of as time would go by, but her ma and pa told her to see to a medical provider’s help. So Sally, being always a good girl with full of humanity and great filial duties, hearkened to her parents’ advice and took a trip to the office by tram.  Sally endured the pain of treatment with ladylike dignity, got her prescription from the doctor, and decided to go to Rainbow Bakery to rest herself with the food prepared by her aunt Mathilda to brighten up her weary soul and weakened body. Now she felt much better and relieved, thanks much to the hearty food and the ever gentle kindness of  Mrs. Lompstrumpf (“Grandma” as Sally endearingly refers to and calls her) and vivacious Anika’s personality.  Grandma cheered up Sally with a mug of hot peppermint tea she made especially for the poor girl.

    The lunch at Rainbow Bakery is always pleasant, and even a total stranger would feel included just by sitting there with a cup of coffee and a donut. There is no time limit for how long one can stay there regardless of the cost of food from the menu; you can buy just one croissant and sit there until you are bored with sitting. That’s why the little ones, Sally, and others regard the bakery as their elbow room.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Episode III: A Cozy Sunday Afternoon

    The Sato Family on a Sunday Afternoon (Click here.)

     

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    Although it was an icy Sunday with a frequent scatter of snow today, which was a typical climatic tendency on the east coast, the home of Mr. Sato’s young family was cozy and nice with a fireplace, a rocking chair, a comfy set of sofa, and a TV set.

    Meet the Sato family from Japan, who have recently arrived in Charlottestown, a neighboring town of Avonlea. In spite of a different cultural setting, the Sato family fit right into the lifestyle and cultural mode of a new environment thanks much to their civil decorum, playful nature, and diligence work ethics that are universal virtues transcending the subjectivity of time and territorial boundaries.

    The Sato are a young, budding family with Mr. Sato himself, Michiko, his pretty wife, and 2 adorable little sons, Hideo and Yuki who are the apples of their eyes. Perhaps they may reside in Chalottestown permanently after Mr. Sato completes his term in the office. However different decision Mr. Sato will make, the family bound by love, understanding, and support will not be deterred by any existential difficulties of life and remain strong and be a bedrock of what a family should be in times of trouble.

  • Episode II of the Sylvanians: Before the Weekend

    Click here for Thursday evening

    24879320_502678990099370_2033890894_oThis is an episode 2 of the Sylvanian Series I have written. Although the story might be deemed intent upon children because of the characters being anthromopoistic, it is actually intended for all ages, including the young at heart.

    The theme of the story goes thus: It’s a Thursday evening, when the the residents of Avonlea enjoy their mealtime after a hard day’s work. In fact, Thursdays are much pleasant than Fridays because the impending weekends are all the more enlivened by plans of cherished weekend activities as they deem enjoyable and rewarding on their own accord.

    It’s always heartening and relaxing to expect to do something rather than doing it in actuality. Meet Sally, Mr. Karl’s family, Mrs. Lompstrompf, Mathilda, and a band of little guys for their evening repast.

    *Sylvanians are the residents of Avonlea, the miniature figures that I have. I haven taken pictures thereof and written a few short episodic stories thereabout.

     

  • The Collie Family

    The Collie family (Click here)

    I have written some episodic short stories about my Sylvanian miniature figures I have collected. Today I am posting the first episode of the Collie family which I wrote when I got them for the first time. Just click on  “The Collie family”, and it will lead you to the story in PDF format.

    I wish my blog geared by WordPress would show the writing with the pictures in its entirety without clicking on the link as above, but it does not seem to have such convenient function unless I change my current free plan to premium with a certain charge fee. (Yes, we all know the power of money in the capitalist society because it is a carte blanche.) Someday in near future I may change it to premium for more options for my blog. (Yes, I cannot help but conform to the norms of the society, as Aristotle says that humans are by nature social animals…)

  • Who am I?

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    Dear Readers:

    Hi there. Thank you for stopping by my blog. It’s always a pleasure communicating with people through writing, which I believe is the most authentic vehicle of expression of a self. My love of reading and writing inspires me to publish my thinkings in this blog. So Welcome All with my Whole Heart.

    My name is Stephanie Joori Suh, living in a suburban New Jersey town in the vicinity of the New York City. I work in the City for livelihood and write at home (or sometimes on the Second Floor in a Dunkin’ Donuts’ shop nearby my workplace) for selfhood. The great psychologist and thinker Viktor E. Frankl, who is also the founder of Logotherapy, has urged us that we strive for realizing our values that are: Creative Value, Experiential Values, and Attitudinal Values in order to arrive at meanings of our lives. How true it is! I believe those who write are united spiritually in fulfilling such noble deeds. We are kindred spirits.

    I may not write perfect English prose due to English being my second language. I may not sound ordinary in the sense that my writing speaks with certain streaks of foreignness. Nevertheless, it is my quest for actualizing what I possess inside by means of literary expression. And I have to purge it out, unravel the mystery in me that is dying for the discovery of the truth in me.

    Hence this little blog has come into being; it is the birth of my brain child, or rather the manifested ego qua meaningfulness as in terms of Logotherapy. So many thanks again for your readership, which is also meaningful to me.

    All the Best,

    Stephanie S.

  • Two Fellows – Part I

    two

    So there he was. You could always find him there at the same time, at the same place regardless of a change of four seasons, like it was his duty to do. Looking over the fence smartly seated on a rock on one balmy afternoon, Toto was calm and steady. His big brown eyes full of yearnings and visions glanced at the dancing leaves on the quince tree outside the fence where there were only a few fruits left because Grandma, being of generous and affable nature, had given the well ripe ones to the neighbors. However, such intermittently displayed quinces surrounded by the abundant leaves appealed to Toto’s inquisitive eyes: the way the leaves swayed to the tune of the breeze was a part of the nature’s orchestra that stimulated all of his senses, which ultimately led him to the outburst of his exhilaration in long howling like a wolf pup in the wild.

    Toto was a Jindo mix, aged 9 weeks or so. Toto came to Joe’s home on a cold winter afternoon a year ago with Pa who brought him in his jacket. He was a white puppy looking healthy but a bit apprehensive about the new surrounding. But mind you that there was no sign of fear in his eyes but intelligence. Joe named him Toto after a legendary dog in Korea who returned to his owner, an old woman who had given the dog to her nephew in a city miles away from her home in Jindo. So he wanted to have a dog whose faithfulness and loyalty would be equivalent of those of the legendary namesake. Joe wanted to keep his new puppy till the end of the world because he had lost Lana, a Samoyed mix puppy of 9 weeks old, to distemper 2 years ago. This time, Joe thought, would be the last time to let such thing happen to him and the dog. It was his new bound duty, a duty that suddenly appeared sacred and fateful to his destiny. Boy as he was, Joe was resolute in his new pledge to the life and protection of Toto as his guardian. Looking at Toto who was napping beside him on the rock by the quince tree, Joe could hear the whisper of the breeze that blessed his guardianship and fellowship of the human and the canine. What a nice afternoon it was to both the boy and the dog.

    “Joe, can you come here quickly?” It was Joe’s sister Judy. She was 16 years old, 2 years senior to him. Judy also loved Toto and dogs, although her favorite breeds were Labs, Border Collies, Shiba Inus, and Bichon Frises. She had been secretly entertained having a Bichon Frise until Pa brought Toto home. She had a soft spot for this particular breed since she had read about a homeless elderly man who sailed through the tribulations with his Bichon Frise dog named Willow; the image of the small, curly haired dog with large soulful eyes in the arms of the man still lingered in her mind. But it’s not that she did not lie their Toto. Toto was their another sibling, the youngest brother whom Ma had lost by miscarriage 6 years ago. Judy’s love of Toto was not to be confused with anthropomorphism because she loved Toto the way he was, the way Toto was the closest natural wonder. He was Judy and Joe’s guide to the natural world like Virgil to Dante in his journey to Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Through Toto, Judy and Joe could see the wonder of Nature in which all creatures existed and made the human existence all the more conspicuous by appreciating the pristine beauty which was to be beheld in the eyes of the innocent.