STAY, in the Breath

letters from a writer & photographer's journey

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

The Quiet & the Thunder in the Confluence

“…standing between the earth and sky, we are silenced by the sight…” -Abraham Joshua Heschel, I Asked for Wonder Hello my friends, What a confluence in time we are within! It’s had me in a quiet place considering the many river-like convergences in our lives that at once bring a loss of self and a greater intimacy. I find as I get older not a lack of meaning or nothingness in.. Read More

Returning (Home) “Where Are You?”

“Love…endures all things.” -1 Corinthians 13:7 In the confluence of all things, our realities and the ineffable, we stand at a crossroad, peering into the unknown looking for the way home, listening for the voice our soul knows. I know so little, but I find here in this place I know one thing: Love endures all things. We can trust Love knows the way home. I love the story we.. Read More

While I Was Sleeping…

Hello Friends! I’m thinking it’s time for an update! Since I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’ve been dealing with some illness I wanted to take a few minutes to share on that level. It’s difficult to explain something you don’t understand, so I have not given many specific details about my health journey. One measurable issue however has been a consistent fever basically every day of the past six months, until.. Read More

The Art He Makes Out of it All — Even Parenthood

Hello friends! It’s been several weeks since I’ve posted here, but not for lack of writing. My journals are brimming but more than anything, my children—the most important books I’ll ever write—and I have embarked on the adventure of our new homeschool year.     These are some of the highlights. What you don’t see in these photos: all the sit-down, practice book work, me running into myself over whether.. Read More

For the Travelers or Anyone Who Needs to Know Their Quiet Life Matters

The past two months my family and I walked a slim line and close shave to some harrowing past circumstances and decisions. It was all the sudden the same and completely different, renewed. It was scary and exciting. I didn’t know how or where to begin to write to you all. “Traveling mercies” can be like the gift of twilight, no other time of day like it, stillness shattering through the.. Read More

The Liminal Space of Prayer

Friends, How to capture the essence of the largeness of the tiniest details that completely reinvent our days is sometimes—beyond words. I’m writing to you from a different state, address and perspective than I last wrote. This past month, in my mind I’ve written you a hundred thoughts. My hands, however, have been a wee preoccupied; working to unpack, and recreate the warmth of “home” for my family of eight. Today,.. Read More

Kick “Perfect” to the Curb, Where it Belongs

I have often made the mistake in my thinking and operating as a mom that if I am not doing it “perfectly” then I am not doing well enough. The other day I sat around the table with my kids, after a previously sad day. I could feel we were all still on the mend. The day before one of my children just flat out decided there was something he.. Read More

Living With the Ache for Home

Who knew I would speak with not one, but two of my children, between the ages of 3-14, this week about their future spouses, their future lives. I found in my boys a longing to know their place in this world. How surprised I was to come across their tiny but true nonetheless, ache. I perceived in them, ache. They are aching for their wholeness, and so am I. I didn’t.. Read More

An Artist’s Leap, Or Fail?

Five years ago, we lost: job, home, baby and for almost a year and a half—each other. My husband needed work and no one in his industry was hiring close to home. He took a job out-of-state, we put a sign in the front yard and started off on our new adventure, with five kids in tow. But renting in one state and owning a house that would not sell in another didn’t work long term, it hit its limits.

So, Jay stayed where the work was, to provide for us financially, and the kids and I went back to our old house, one state and a million miles away. I made a deal with Jay…