i come to the forest (moving pictures poetry)

this little moving pictures poetry film is a companion to "i come to the water" (which you can watch here). 

i have been greatly inspired by my friend vivienne when taking self-portraits lately. i am feeling a stirring, a healing within as i set the timer and find my way to illustrating all the emotion held inside through moments captured with my camera's lens.

all footage and self-portraits were taken in the Pacific Northwest woods near Frog Creek Lodge, the location of Reveal, the Fall 2010 Be Present Retreat. a few spots are still available. give yourself the gift of joining us on the adventure of revealing where we are on our paths...

{sixty seconds of} finding pieces of me

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the sixty seconds project: snippets of moving pictures poetry that make up moments of my life. see more sixty seconds here.

interlude . pieces of 2009, behind the lens

In this little film, I have gathered pieces of 2009 and strung them together, adding words, music to find my way toward remembering, toward knowing where my journey has taken me this year...

(The idea to create this video, this reminder and write this poem came to me after I watched Shona's video a few weeks ago. If you don't know Shona's blog, you should.)

i come to the water

When Jon and I visited Manzanita this spring, I spent some time on the beach by myself and decided to simply film myself walking on the sand toward the ocean (inspired by Jen Gray's walking videos). While I was walking, Jon was taking photos from the deck of the house we were visiting, unbeknownst to me. I didn't know if I would use this footage, but as I was slowly walking toward the waves, I began to think about how coming to the water and breathing in the air invites me to feel grounded. And, it also invites me to feel a closeness with my grandmother. My family and I have spent a lot of time at the ocean, and I feel them surround me, the best of our times together fill me up, when I hear the waves crashing and feel sand underneath my feet.

As I stood staring at the sparkle atop the water, I thought about how even in the shadows of grief, of deeply missing my grandmother, there is light. I feel that light within, and when at the water, I am reminded of this truth. Then I remembered a poem I had written about why I come to the water, and the idea for this video was born.