Watching Corn Grow

Watching Corn Grow, August 2025

For the first time in my life, I have free time. And by free, I mean time to do with as I please. And all I want to do is to see my little corner of the world in its most authentic presentation. The camera has an uncanny ability to show us everyday moments and ordinary things in new ways. I wonder at small things like these wrought-iron chairs, placed strategically in front of the small garden with its rows of corn. I imagine what it must be like to watch corn grow. And know that the wait is worth the time spent. The rewards just ahead. Sweet corn dripping with butter. Sliced tomatoes on the side. Sweet tea with mint in the glass. Summer suppers serenaded by cicadas. Life can be hard and unfair, but sometimes it is soft and gentle, too.

Light Is Still Pouring In

Still Life with Flowers and Cherry Tomatoes, August, 2025

No matter
how yesterday
unfolded before your eyes
and no matter the stacks of worries
burdening your mind
that have left you unsettled
or confused,
Light is still pouring in
reminding you over and over again
to surrender,
to let go,
for these troubles
are bound to shadows
that cannot survive in this new light.
Bask in these beams of sun
as you find your new beginnings,
and new way of seeing,

a grace-filled way
of living.

—Morgan Harper Nichols, All Along You Were Blooming

First Aid

First Aid, August 2020

I took this photo 5 years ago and never used it in any way. Never even edited the RAW file. As I was going back through my archives, searching for another image, I came across this one, and it made me smile. Because now I know there is very little in life that cannot be repaired. Rupture and repair is the work of lasting relationships.

I am right here. I’m not going anywhere and we can work this out.

Hey, we’re on the same team. It’s me and you against the problem, not me versus you.

A Band-aid won’t do the trick, but building trust will go a long way toward healing.

Where'd You go, Donna?

Frog Level Fire Department, July 2020

When I texted back to my friends that I couldn’t talk right now because I was in Frog Level, they laughed and wondered just where in the world I had gone. Sometimes I disappear for the better part of a day down a country road in a small town where I always feel welcome and at home. I love to explore and am incredibly grateful that I have somehow found a way to be both a homebody and an adventurer.