STAY, in the Breath

letters from a writer & photographer's journey

Out of Mourning, Not Necessarily After

This morning I watched an eagle come what felt unbelievably close and before I knew what was happening it swooped down and clasped a duck within its talons. The cry in the outcome of that swoop broke open my heart and words came out. This is a follow up to my last post in which I wrote that it is impossible to be fully present in joy, until we have.. Read More

For those in pain…

The change of the seasons is the same as the boundary between sand and sea, blurred. This week it has nearly seemed Winter, Spring, and Autumn all at once in our slice of wilds. Then to top off this conflux of seasons in these parts we saw something most unique out of any of our years living in a forest by a rushing river so far. We don’t know for.. Read More

Facing the Danger of Letting Go

We went kite flying this past week as we celebrated two birthdays in our family, an eighteenth and a twelfth! My mama heart is all wowowowowow. In all the fullness I’ve been watching a strand of meaning I’m grateful to get to share with you all today… There’s a risk in letting go. If you release you realize. If you extinguish lies you have to face truth. If you talk to.. Read More

Feeling Numb, and He Called

Some of us, in relationships, have been asked (to say it numbly) to be numb in order to help numb another’s pain. Some of us have chosen to be numb. Some of us aren’t paying close enough attention to know whether any or what of that is true about ourselves. Anyways, if we did, wouldn’t that be painful? So, back to normalcy because ya know normalcy numbs… But then I.. Read More

Wanna know where new life is coming for you?

Hello my traveling companions, tonight’s post is gonna read a little bit like a travel journal, entries of exploration, discovery, and remembrance from me to you & me. If we’re connected on Insta or FB then you’ll have seen the first few entries, though revised (more below) but for those of you who don’t I wanted to share here as well. Tuesday, March 16, 2021: Snapshots of a little bit.. Read More

For When Your World is on Fire

There are wounds that wind our souls so tight we quit breathing from our bellies. That’s how babies breathe. Until the pain comes, we breathe from our bellies. Then we swallow the pain down to our guts and kill ourselves—but we simply think we’re trying to survive. And, in reality, we are. What’s so horrible about that? Why should surviving make us sick? It’s this question I have to capture;.. Read More

Looking for Purpose, Finding the Ground

Dear Tired Heart, You were brave and opened the cabinet of your self looking for purpose, calling, but found pain there where it seemed purpose was supposed to live. You are right. So, maybe linger a little longer? Please, don’t turn in disappointment because what is supposed to look shiny on the shelf is lying there in the soil while night falls ’round. Watch a minute? You thought it would be tidy.. Read More

How Love & Pain Mingle. How Clay Get’s Formed.

Living by a river this past month has been an experience to savor. At any part of the day we can hear it’s crashing. This has been true since we moved here but even more now that the rainy season has begun. It seems on the conservative side to say that the more stream-like river that we’ve been playing in rose by ten feet in a few days time. There is.. Read More

Words: For When Clarity Comes With Confusion

Sometimes clarity has a companion. Sometimes clarity comes in the midst of a cloud, piercing through one minuscule facet of its heaviness and there it is—illuminating myriad colors. But, then it’s just all cloudy again. We’re encompassed, again. So we weep. So we soar. Out of tears, thoughts. —Leon Wieseltier Sometimes we’re immersed in waters, the waters that cleanse us. Beneath—sounds, sights, clarity is muted—a story half understood. This baptism,.. Read More