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 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 MoreHappy New Year! Here are some of my best (and worst) memories from 2018:
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