STAY, in the Breath

letters from a writer & photographer's journey

Diary of a Woman Healing in our Slice of Wilds: Moving at the speed of… crisis, toward peace

Diary of a Woman Healing in our Slice of Wilds (excerpt edition): It is May 15, 2025: two years since May 15, 2023, the day we moved away from our river house. But May 15 was not the day that marked the end of living in a state of near-constant-crisis, that hadn’t ended yet. We were moving then, at the speed of crisis. That lasted for a while. During this.. Read More

Today I noticed… I want to say thank you for what has been

Helloo Old Friends, If you can see the pics above you will notice just about every single one of my children are now taller than me, some by an entire head! As you read and scroll down you’ll get a small glimpse of where we’ve come from… what an indescribably precious gift! It’s been ten years since I began my blog and my babies and I were exploring every green.. Read More

In Praise of Noticing

I was sitting at my friend’s quiet farm table when I remembered the way to write when I don’t feel like it or think I have something significant enough to say. Just start. Then Jesse-dog came over and sat on my feet, as if to say, stay awhile longer. The truth is, in 45 years, I can’t recall ever having a dog sit on my feet before. For a quarter.. Read More

Our Roads

I was behind the wheel and curving around a familiar road in a thick fog a few nights past. There’s something special that happens on roads we know by heart when circumstances suddenly make them strange and unfamiliar to us. It could be the first time on that road at nightfall or a heavy thunderstorm or the first time cutting through a heavy fog. It happens in a moment and.. Read More

It’s time for a new book about love…

If I could sit down with a pen and paper to write each of you from my heart tonight I’d tell you it’s finally time! After more than four years, my book, The Love Writings: a ragamuffin’s letters about love, is ready to be released into the world—it is ready for you. I am delighted and nervous, but most of all I am relieved and ready and hopeful. I hope.. Read More

Staying Steady: a love letter

I haven’t been able to write very easily lately. I’ve been distracted by many voices, been lost in love, swimming in the deeps of important conversations, heightened emotions. That’s to say nothing about continued life transitions. Through it all though I’ve had this short love letter forming inside of me. I want to write to all you rebels against society’s apathy and stagnant wastelands, to those of you who won’t.. Read More

We Moved & (more excerpts from) Diary of a Woman Healing in our Slice of Wilds

I’ve been wanting to write these words to you all here for a long while; we have moved. It’s important to me for you to know that the time finally came for my family and I to leave our beloved river house that I have written so many letters to you from. Some of you, I know, will feel this grief with me in a very real way. It was.. Read More

Bulldogs, Birds, & Beauty that Remains (Holy Ground)

After a bulldog meets you on the road even a bird in a bush may startle you, at first. Yeah, both of those things happened to me recently, but it tells a true story all the way around…doesn’t it? I’ve taken to a semi-regular sabbath nap in a hammock a dear friend gifted me. I placed it beneath the old willow in view of the big maple, their shelter and.. Read More

Learning Lament… (a poem)

Learning Lament, by Raynna Myers I stood at the forest’s edge Then I unshod my feet I found there The ground was soft The air’s scent was sweet I entered I Iooked up, into the fir trees Let their leaves dripping rain Roll over my forehead Anoint me I heard there a whisper Come close and listen Let moss surround you Look at the tree’s wrinkles And its beard move.. Read More