Welcome to my blog.
I write about the power of stories to move people and, sometimes, mountains. What makes the difference between stories that nourish and build – and stories that undermine? I am interested in how people build narratives and live within their narratives. I am interested in how these stories can be reframed, retold, or altogether replaced.
I publish weekly. All photos are mine unless specified otherwise.
- Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: The Secret Life of Trees
Alone at the edge of the forest. Sap quietly circulating everywhere, like a myriad of creeks finding their way through every twist and turn. Rising through the trunks, splitting at every crossroads, distributing itself through the branches all the way up. Feeding everything. A sea of trees communicating and cooperating through subterranean networks of fungi. One giant organism living, breathing, regulating itself, interacting with the environment. A web of life bringing together plants, fungi, insects, animals. Lifeblood flowing everywhere, unseen and unheard. - The Uncommon Light of Memory
I remember wasps circling around crushed pears fallen from the old tree guarding Grandma’s garden. I remember the doughnut stand in front of the railway station. I remember endless rainy days. The big basin in front of the porch overflowing with rainwater from the drainpipe. I remember the smell of hay. I remember the noises coming from the attic when I couldn’t sleep. I remember the face of Grandma, red and sweaty under her headkerchief from working in the garden. I remember Mom appearing at the other end of the garden when she came to visit. I remember the smell in the attic. The fear and excitement of going up there. I remember coming back from school on the train tracks, climbing one track, and trying to see how fast I could walk before I lost my balance. I remember the day I came back home and there was silence and Grandpa was dead and I was afraid to enter the house. - Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: The World in Black and White
We say that somebody sees the world in black and white when they seem to be lacking nuance and attention to detail and specificity. But there’s a whole world of shades between black and white. A spectrum of nuances and possibilities. And sometimes it’s exactly because we restrict ourselves to black and white that we can better express visually what is unique, interesting, or unusual about our subject. - Stories: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
What are stories good for? There may be more than meets the eye for us as individuals or as communities. - Stories From the Forest: “With Love From Mo to Billye”
A short story from the forest, somewhere on the border between France and Germany. I discovered it during a hike, like so many other things we discover while being in motion.