STAY, in the Breath

letters from a writer & photographer's journey

The Deepening Gaze of Faithfulness

In the early morning, of this fairyland I live in, the air is brimming with sound. The roosters remind me I live in rural America but the other bird songs are still so newborn to me that it persists to feel as my first morning here, like the stuff of dreams. In a reverie it feels like I’m enclosed by tropical forest and its reverberations. The bright blue wing of.. Read More

I Will Sing

The first fresh days of the new year are unfolding into deeper ones and I want to be here within them, but I feel enclosed in almost a continual house of mourning so far this year. I feel grateful to be alive in this glowing and abundant world, everyday I really do feel that thrill, but it also has been tempered by loss. It has made it difficult to write, yet.. Read More

Faithful Light

It’s a beautiful world of continual connections that we get to live and love and learn within. Some days that connectivity feels far away from our surfaces, out of reach, submerged even. To keep lights on for one another, speak truths to one another, remind each other of the obvious and not so obvious (to us…right now…) is so important. “What is obvious to you, is amazing to others.” -Derek.. Read More

To See Hope, To Find Contentment

It occurred to me this week the way the river can have a similar illusion as an airplane does when you look at it from the opposing direction. If we didn’t know better it could seem as though both were moving in slow motion. How similar this is to family, to life. Sometimes from certain angles, we can look at our lives and buy into an illusion that it’s going.. Read More

Woman. Moon. Beauty.

Sometimes I look skyward and want it to be full of lovely things. Sometimes I’m afraid to look, afraid to find loneliness. Twelve times a year I look into the night and find darkness where light once was. It’s called the new moon, but it took time for me to accept darkness as newness. It railed against my common parlance, my standards of acceptance. Then someone said, “Woman. Moon. Beauty.”.. Read More

Digging Into 2018: Honest Reflections for Clarity, Resolve, & Life Giving

It’s the sting of the words that we can’t form, the ache in our chest and our throat searching for the relief of understanding, of being understood, that makes us freeze sometimes. There’s a sense of paralyzation even while we’re still fully functioning—going, doing, being—but still no relief. Then when come the hard things up on the horizon, it can be enough to send us into hiding. Tired, we wonder.. 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

Only Time: A Sabbath Prayer

Did you know that the word for holy in the Bible, kadosh, was first used in reference to time, a day? “And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy…”—Genesis 2:3(a) There’s a song we’ve sung, “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are filled with Your glory. Hosanna! (Save me!) Hosanna! Hosanna! In the highest.” My husband and I sang this at our.. Read More

Free…Like Freedom and Free Book

Well, the day is beginning to wrap up as I send this out or maybe it already has where you live. Whether the sun is beginning to peak out or hide-away, here’s a story for you. But first, if you don’t have a lot of reading time tonight—I want you to have this free gift from me—my book is free on Amazon Kindle! Click here to go get it. Once upon.. Read More