It’s what you’ll find here and what I built this website and podcast/portfolio/catch-all-creative project for. I hope this site has been a nest, albeit a neglected one: a safe place tucked away in the immense forest that is the internet, and a place to grow. I’ve been gone from it for some time, but I’ve come back. I hope to pick up where I left off.
These three seemingly inconsequential words drew me back. Words. Flowers. Art. They have been the over-arching themes of Gathered: Storied Botanicals. They have also been a driving force to taking a leap of faith and pursuing freelance writing. It’s something that I’ve avoided out of fear and, while it still intimidates me, it also feels like it’s time. The last couple of years has taught me that uncertainty is pervasive, lying in wait even in the people, places, and systems we’ve always leaned on. Rather than spend all my time and energy building a safety net with the hope of flight one day, I ought to practice flying.
As I seek out work, these words have become a tagline, scrawled on business cards and networking platforms. I’ve slipped these keywords in wherever they fit, wherever they present me as both creative and professional (whether they yield any prospects is yet to be seen). But these words also go deeper than some attempt at being clever during an elevator pitch.
They encapsulate so much of what I value and want to fill my life up with. They nourish and fulfill. They’ve been around for as long as I can remember. An early memory is the care I practiced while sitting in the grass and knotting stems of clover to make necklaces and crowns. My toddler-self was unceasingly amazed that stapling a stack of pages along its fold could bind my “books” of animal stories and illustrations.
They’re still around: words, flowers, and art. Despite the prevailing uncertainties that come our way, they have managed to remain constants.
And if these are things you’re also curious about, I hope you’ll stop by to visit. I’ll also post work on Medium. You find those here. Thank you for reading. Until next time.
