oh hell

head on over to nathan's blog to read his sermon on hell. it's a well-researched piece that is very much worth sitting with and bringing to conversation with others. let the un-learning begin!
photo by bryan nixon.

i want this life

somehow i stumbled across nicole's blog and foto stream this morning and found myself in a restful world. i have no context for this person and of course we all craft images of ourselves online, "controlled" perceptions if you will- but the lifestyle portrayed in the photographs evokes a sense of intentionality, nurture, creativity and care that i long for. at any rate, browsing them was sabbath experience and for a moment i thought i lived on wendell berry's farm.

the stages of a meeting

We were certain that our third child would be a girl. So certain that we couldn't even come up with a boys' name until a few days before the birth. When the baby was born there was a flutter of activity because the usuall first breaths didn't occur- instead there was an oxygen tank, hoses, instructions to rub the little limbs, busy latex clad hands, cpr... we were so relieved when the first cry was heard that we forgot to check what the gender was- the lively little face was enough at that point. This beautiful shot was taken a few minutes later, the instant we looked up after realizing that the whole time we had not been holding a baby girl. Thanks Mackenzie for capturing this magical moment between us and Ezra.

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feliz navidad!

Amy Stein- "Domesticated" series

This is cool: Domesticated

from her website: "My photographs serve as modern dioramas of our new natural history. Within these scenes I explore our paradoxical relationship with the "wild" and how our conflicting impulses continue to evolve and alter the behavior of both humans and animals. We at once seek connection with the mystery and freedom of the natural world, yet we continually strive to tame the wild around us and compulsively control the wild within our own nature. Within my work I examine the primal issues of comfort and fear, dependence and determination, submission and dominance that play out in the physical and psychological encounters between man and the natural world. Increasingly, these encounters take place within the artificial ecotones we have constructed that act as both passage and barrier between domestic space and the wild."