When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
— Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things
It was a year of travel to new and old places, the year I started my dissertation, the year I hiked eight miles and up volcanic sands while pregnant, the year we bought a wagon to take Argos on adventures again, and most importantly, the year that I become a mom.
Read MoreWell, here we are. In retrospect, this year has felt both incredibly long and short. When I started this post, I was thinking to myself that nothing had happened and 90% of my months would just be photos of my pets. I was very wrong! We began this year with travel, went on a trip eight out of the twelve months, and ended the year with Ryan’s 30th birthday trip to Europe. It turns out that when you spend 4 months reading 100 texts and studying for the most stressful exam of your life, it really colors your memories of the year. So I’m glad to be able to look back at these photos and be reminded that I didn’t just spend 2022 in my office typing up notes and frantically trying to understand ecocritical theory.
Read MoreSo here you go: the year 2020, the year of the pandemic, of neighborhood walks and outdoor picnics with friends, of Zoom Christmas and birthdays and just about everything else, of working from home and getting all the cat cuddles, of reading books for fun again and rewatching Avatar the Last Airbender three times and creating elaborate escape-room-style scavenger hunts for Ryan, of love and grace and resilience, despite it all being too much.
Read MoreI moved to Minnesota the summer after graduating from undergrad and getting engaged, and I never anticipated how beautiful and difficult it would be. I was 21, and the longest I’d spent away from Kentucky was four months while I studied abroad. But here I was, leaving all my friends and family behind to move twelve hours away to some northern state with which my only familiarity came from Marshall Erickson in How I Met Your Mother.
Read MoreHappy New Year! This has been a weird year: personally, there have been a lot of really-not-great moments, some amazing travels, some blessed days spent out in nature, and professionally/academically, I’ve achieved my dream of teaching creative writing, published another short story, and finished a draft of my thesis. I know 2020 will bring many changes, some hard but necessary, others long-awaited and full of joy (Ryan and I are finally going to be married this year!), but I believe ultimately light will break through the darkness. So here’s to hope in this new decade.
Read MoreGrowing up, we would always end up at Boyds Orchard during apple-picking season. Fall was ushered in with apple-cider-cinnamon donuts, fresh apple turnovers, climbing the hay-bale tower, and cartons of apples to take home and make into apple pie. When I went to college, I continued this fall tradition with my roommate, Kayla, and later, Ryan. And I can confirm that in at least two out three of these photos, I am boiling hot because it wasn’t cold in Kentucky yet and I insisted on wearing the most fall outfit I owned.
Read MoreHowever, post-undergrad, I moved into an apartment alone for the first time, and I was forced to confront a difficult question: did my consumption reflect my environmentalist views? This was around the time zero-waste living (producing no plastic waste) was going viral, and it provided a new lens within which to examine one’s environmental commitment. So many of us grew up with that adage, “Reduce, reuse, recycle,” but how many of us actually paid attention to reducing—both consumption and waste—and reusing what we already have?
Read MoreHappy New Year! Here are some of my best (and worst) memories from 2018:
Read MoreAfter my accident, I should have been focusing on checking myself for injuries, getting important documents out of my car, and dealing with the panic attack. Instead, I could only worry that I would become the next statistic that night, the next woman in the wrong place at the wrong time, the rationalization for all my fears.
Read MoreFor any of you who have eczema—especially an eczema that you can't hide with clothing or makeup—know that you aren't alone. Know that someone else understands the anxiety over staying at a hotel or walking into a Bath & Body Works. Know that someone else understands the sleepless nights and four-times-the-recommended dose of allergy medication. Know that someone else understands the itch or what it feels like to watch your own skin slough off no matter how much lotion you put on it. And know that you are worth more than your skin.
Read MoreIn the end, I came up with a list of five venues that fit my vintage mansion aesthetic and don't threaten to plunge me and my family into bankruptcy. I hope this helps someone out there in the same position I was in!
Read MoreMy junior year of college, I studied abroad with one of my best friends. It was one of the best experiences of my life, but also very difficult. Not because of Kayla or homesickness or missing my then-boyfriend—but because I didn't truly understand one of the core aspects of my identity: my introversion.
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