nature

Half Lives

It is early morning. The world is dark blue and cold. A thin pale line traces a horizon that wasn’t there a moment before, when the darkness made no distinction of earth and sky. The sky lightens faster, from dove grey to the silver of vacant mirrors. Rose-tinted edges rise up and spread out into…Read more Half Lives

Lasting Summer

My earliest memories make no logical sense, one moment I’m standing in a field of sugarcane, the next moment I’m with a flock of ladies in a churchyard, in another moment I‘m running up the front steps of home. The green cane stalks loom above me in my toddler height, bowing in the wind as…Read more Lasting Summer

5 Years of Spring

It had been the perfect spring morning, full of rose-colored light, the air as soft as petals after winter’s sluggish passing. The apple trees in the garden were thick with white blossoms, the young cherry trees full of dark purplish buds nearly ready to unfurl. Soon the locust, the linden, the lilacs and chestnuts would…Read more 5 Years of Spring

Pale Forest

I used to dream of forests, asleep and awake. Dense groves of ancient giants, gilded domes of oak and maple, stands of slender aspens, bearing silent witness, swaying to a breath. Wild, hidden places where life feels more alive, at once intense and restorative. Where my outline might be found within a profusion of stalks,…Read more Pale Forest

Sense of Fall

There is so much tragedy in the world. Though it has always been present, prevalent, stubbornly persistent, it seems alarmingly close now. Too close. For many of us in the west, the world seems to be edging closer to a deep, dark abyss—especially after the events of the past week, the month, the year. It…Read more Sense of Fall

Life After the Apocalypse

As soon as you set foot on the enormous airport runway, you will feel a strong wind. A wild, ceaseless wind that has nothing to buffer it, nothing to contain it. A wind that is both soothing and refreshing, the kind that clears your mind, reminds you of the sea. Instead of deep blue water,…Read more Life After the Apocalypse

Flower & Fruit

The sugary scent of the plump fruit caramelizing in the summer heat was so delicious. The warm air was like syrup. Even the wind gave long slow sighs, relishing its lazy caresses on the soft flesh among the leaves (blushing :-)). The birds flitted around so carefree, plump and content, they happily savored the pick…Read more Flower & Fruit

Lines and Divisions

Single lines can be strummed together a whole, humming in repetitions a chorus reverberating long after the source can be traced. Single lines can cut, dealing out pain in shivers and slivers, incisive, unrelenting, dividing tediously every in-between of the once placid. Single lines can rise-up, up towards the light, reach out furtive tendrils, see…Read more Lines and Divisions

Gilded Willow

All that glitters is not gold. Those who love have all the riches. Walking under the willow trees today, I imagined how amazing it would be to capture their beauty in stained glass. Willows set in jewel tones, art-deco style, cascading from the ceiling. Perhaps a ruby hummingbird or an emerald dragonfly also reveals itself within the scene upon closer…Read more Gilded Willow