Each of these were from moments I felt were quiet, reverent, and connected with nature around me. Each image captures delicate images of where I was having a conversation with the world.

Here featured is a tree with its bark splinted and undulating – naturally reminiscent of a Georgia O’Keefe – a slug traversing a log, blooming hydrangeas, a singular parasitic Monotropa uniflora “Ghost Pipe” that normally exists in clusters, the shell of a cracked robin’s egg in the dirt, and centrally a print reading “hold space for each other to grow”. When I pause to notice something living, blooming, or decomposing, I start to think of having little exchanges where I notice the world and it notices me back.

Nature doesn’t have to justify itself to exist. These processes of growth and decay are cyclical, giving rise to one another. I sit waiting, observing, and feeling that I am a part of it. Just as nature does, to exist is to belong. Being queer is part of how I experience the world. Becoming more curious and tender with myself is how I have learned to commune with the world around me.