Pain is universal. Our specific traumas may differ, but we all experience anguish similarly. Reeling from the losses of both mother and marriage, I used a residency at Glacier National Park to begin to heal my broken heart.

Each image represents an emotion in an arc from sorrow to hope.

Through the practice of seeing with intention, I seek images that embody the myriad forms of grief, confusion, pain, relief, surprise, rebirth, and joy we all feel.

One image stands out - a tree healing itself from a top-to-bottom crack. Some trees would die from this injury, but this one healed its old wounds, forever changed, but choosing to survive.

The resulting catharsis gives me hope that others can see a path forward through their own struggles by using the natural world as a tool for healing.

Each of us brings unique stories, joys and traumas to the lands we engage with and that informs how we see the beauty around us. Making connections with our personal histories, digging into the past often raises more questions than it answers, and similarly our journeys of healing are as undulating as the lands we walk.