September 21, 2019. A new thing! I was the featured speaker at a 2-day retreat for Episcopal women at Camp Hardtner in central Louisiana. My 2-part presentation: Creation Considered: Encountering Creatures as a Spiritual Practice.

Before breakfast the second day, a handful of the women joined me to venture out for a short walk. We didn’t go far, but we didn’t need to. This universe is filled with ordinary wonders: a mama wolf spider carrying a boatload of tiny babies clinging to her abdomen, a caterpillar of the gulf fritillary butterfly feeding on a passionflower vine, a late-blooming purple aster, a fairy ring of mushrooms…

And then, seemingly in the middle of a large grassy area, with anchor point on the ground and in bushes 6 feet away (How do they do that?)… a spider web glittering with morning dew, each and every strand strung with tiny, tiny pearls of water.

As the Sufi poet Rumi says, “There are a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

Putting together this presentation was a “new thing.” But “creature encounters” and “spiritual practice” are increasingly how I have been thinking about my “nature photography,” a moniker that just doesn’t do it justice.

I hope I will find many more opportunities to share my vision and practice with people of all sorts and all ages, those who already care deeply for creation, those who aren’t sure what all the fuss is about, those who are willing to learn, and more.

#YearInReview #BestOf2019 #CreationConsidered