Into Something Better, August | Olympia, WA Family Photographer

Washington holds the perfect combination of water and woods. Magical trails dripping in moss, salty ocean shores right at the evergreen tree line, waterfalls, lakes, mountains and turquoise rivers. This month I freelensed much of our camping trip to Gifford Pinchot National Forest. It encompasses over one million acres of wilderness and we claimed a small piece of it to create some summer memories.

I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

Continue through the blog circle of artists around the globe who are choosing adventure with their children. Link at the bottom of the post…

Melissa Lazuka is next in the blog circle.