There is an old, reliable maxim in photography that often gets lost beneath marketing copy: The best camera isn’t the one with the highest price tag or the most advanced technology — it’s the …

The conversation began simply enough, the way good conversations tend to do when there is nowhere urgent to be. A friend and I were talking about depth — how we measure it in each other, and how …

I felt like being extra encouraging this week. We spend an enormous amount of energy worrying about what we are — our titles, our shortcomings, the tasks piling up on the kitchen counter, or the …

I have a long-standing theory that it is physically impossible to play the banjo and remain sad at the same time. The instrument simply refuses to cooperate with despair. Its bright, unapologetic …

I am in the process of selling the family home in Missouri, and it’s just about finished. I’m selling it for about $20,000 less than my original asking price because I am selling it to my …

Living surrounded by coastal waters, quiet timber and the slow rhythm of the island makes finding peace almost deceptively simple here. When the morning light settles over the rain-softened hills and …

We spend a lot of energy trying to keep the surfaces of our lives smooth. We polish our routines and guard our boundaries, hoping to keep the cracks from showing. But living on a narrow strip of land …

If you spend enough time looking at the world through curved glass, your eyes adjust to the distortion. Living on an island, surrounded by water, can sometimes feel like looking out from inside …

There is a distinct difference between information and understanding, just as there is a vast gulf between a tool’s technical specifications and its actual utility. We often find ourselves chasing …

The Fourth of July festivities have come and gone, the last of the smoke has cleared the water and our community is settling back into its familiar, post-holiday rhythm. For weeks leading up to …

It is incredibly easy to move through modern life under the grand illusion of absolute independence. We punch our clocks, manage our households and guard our personal boundaries with fierce pride, …

The routine of walking into the post office to check a P.O. box is a fundamental part of daily life here, a regular ritual connecting our piece of Southeast Alaska to the rest of the world. But this …

The illusion of the self-made individual is a comfortable fiction. It is easy to look out the window, see the water separating us from the rest of the world, and believe we are entirely …

There is a quiet rhythm to life on our island that is easy to take for granted until you stop to look at the handles of our front doors. Walk down almost any street and you will find them unlocked. …

The light has changed. It is a subtle shift at first — a lengthening of the evening, a sharpening of the green on the hillsides — but suddenly we find ourselves standing on the threshold where …

In the landscape of modern relationship advice, there is a popular critique of the 1967 anthem “All You Need Is Love.” It was famously dismantled in an essay by Mark Manson, who used the gritty, …

Since moving here last year, one of my favorite things to do in the morning is to step out on my porch and take in the beautiful view of the mountain across the water. My favorite times for this are …

I was recently speaking with a friend about my non-existent social life. I was talking about how I work, go home and do graduate school homework and then do nothing. But that’s not entirely true. I …

A common saying from my home in Southeast Missouri is that if you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes and it will change. It’s a sentiment born of restlessness — a hope that if we …

How’s your New Year’s resolution going? The first quarter of the year has passed already, and while I didn’t technically make a resolution, I have reasons for cheer. We often treat our goals …