Kinship

During a period of recovery, I found myself drawn into companionship with the trees and plants surrounding my home—magnolia, balsam, motherwort, and pine—each arriving in its season with a presence that carried both comfort and meaning. Born from daily closeness with these beings and others, this project reflects an important learning and an awakening of awareness.

Spring opened with the magnolia’s blossoms, reminding me of resilience and family ties. Summer unfolded in the shade of pines and alders, where Himalayan balsam thrived and filled the days with its exuberant color. In autumn, motherwort appeared, unassuming yet insistent, offering the quiet lesson that what we most need often arrives when we are ready to notice. Winter brought stillness—a pause that revealed solace in silence.

What began as quiet observation became an intimate awareness of kinship: a recognition that these beings are not separate from me, but companions in a shared web of life. Their presence reshaped my understanding of healing, memory, and joy. Kinship is the ongoing record of this lived relationship, where the natural world teaches what it means to belong.