The Beauty of Survival, 2022

In January of 2022 I drove across the country and, for a month, woke up alone in a little cottage under a patch of Douglas Firs in the Pacific Northwest. I’d started to notice changes in my face, hair, and skin, along with deeper shifts in my life – some of the people and relationships I held closest started to feel further away. They were making families and creating their own lives. I came face-to-face with myself, and wondered, “Is this it?” If this was it, why did I still feel unsettled and uprooted, not just in society but also within myself?

We are all getting older. Life inevitably evolves, sometimes in ways we don’t welcome. We lose people, whether by death or by choice. Our bodies and faces change. We realize we can do almost anything, but not everything. In this awareness, there can be an inexplicable sadness, a loss, a grief. I’m learning we must let what’s gone go. And then we must evolve into the next rendition of ourselves, shedding our old ways and stepping into the people we are meant to become.