out here on the edge of lonesome: and also keith richards made me cry
Sometimes I choose that shadowy space, because there’s things you can only uncover about yourself by going out there on the emotional borderlands.
Married to amazement
Married to amazement. Wandering in the woods brings beauty and blissfulness, and as the poet Mary Oliver wrote “I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.” Get out there in it if you are able.
El Dia de Muertos
A night when the living invite the dead to visit, and celebrate those who have gone before. We don’t have any tradition like this Mexican holiday in the United States. Getting to be at a Day of the Dead celebration was something entirely new for me. I was outside my cultural norms and found it moving, and stunningly beautiful.
What the animals want us to remember
“I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.” This writing by Wendell Berry keeps coming to mind as I navigate the dull ache of losing a beloved dog. While she was not a “wild thing” she offered those same lessons. How to live in the moment. How to love unconditionally. In her honour, I’ll keep working on this.
Come closer. There’s more to see.
Come closer. Lean in and look again. This is what the forest whispered to me yesterday as I strolled along the South Toe River near Celo, NC.
From the rim down to the river
From the rim down to the river, the Linville Gorge Wilderness area is a national treasure. If you are able, go there and let yourself gaze upon a piece of undisturbed land.
Picnic memory
Smokes hangs in the air like a ghost I’ve been waiting to find.
In the garden on earth day.
In the garden every day is earth day. The plants want to be seen and heard. Look and listen and let them speak to you.
River, Valley, Roots, and Rocks
Certainly you can fall in love with a place much like you fall in love with a person. Here are just a few images I made at a place that’s become a friend to me.
What the dead want us to know: Light and shadow at The Old Burying Grounds
Graveyards are often beautiful. And beyond that, there are things the dead want us to know.
Santa Claus may need a little help this year
In eastern Kentucky, among many places hit by storms, fire and flood, Santa may need a little help this year. Instead of finding a gift ‘for that person that has everything’, as our consumer driven headlines demand, think about giving where it’s really needed.
So much beauty to be had.
Gardening and gardens, as well as photography, are both forms of meditation for me. Enjoy some images I made at a world class garden in North Carolina.
the beautiful letting go
The glittering gold of Fall leaves can be intoxicating. They help remind us that it is only by letting go that the process of renewal can begin.
hell and high water
Families wait in line in Neon, KY for clean water, food, cleaning supplies and clothing.
Ode to the Cypress Grill: a place in time
The Cypress Grill near Jamesville, NC, before it burnt down.
Yearning for the open water
These boats yearn for the open water. Don’t we all?
Steadying ourselves
My mother, Phyllis Gwendolyn Bolling Williams, has been gardening since she was a small girl. At 87, she still finds a way to tend to the earth and coax beauty and nutrition from small patches of ground.
“I know what it’s like to be free and I know what it’s like to be encaged.” Dexter Romweber
When I saw Romweber in 2015 I wasn’t sure how much of his shtick was harmless stage antics, and how much of it was ‘honest-to-god I’m falling apart before your very eyes folks’ reality.