“The picture on the lid of my beautiful, complicated puzzle is dark on one side and bright warm light on the other. My dark side is mysterious and moody with secrets hiding in the shadows that can barely be seen, some unknown but that’s where the answers lie, that’s where the lessons are learned, that’s where the pain is felt so strongly that the joy on the “other” side can be so completely tasted, felt, rejoiced in. Navy blue sky, a sliver of a waning moon, women dancing naked by the firelight, holding hands and singing. Fireflies flicker and old wounds lay on the sacred ground. The women are old, battered but the most lithe, beautiful, passionate women. They have survived, they have put the pieces back together in a way that suits them. They are continued works in progress and love is the glue that holds the puzzle together.
The opposite bright side is sunshine, warmth, Mother Nature and small girls playing Hopscotch and Ring Around the Rosie. They are building their cache of love and light to fall apart and find their way back together again.”
**New offerings for women are on the horizon. If you would like to hear about them first, please drop me your email address through the link below.
I woke before dawn as if from a dream state, maybe from a week of Covid, maybe from other things that have been clouding my mind. All I could hear was silence outside my window. I slipped on cozy clothes and went to the upstairs door window. It was snowing.
I lit the candles and made coffee and stared out into the blue darkness watching the flakes flutter by the window. When dawn broke, I bundled up like a little girl, pulling my wool hat down over my forehead and traipsed down, down to the sea.
Every rock and crevice ahead of me, all the way to the green gray water was covered with a layer of snow…no land, no rocks, no stairs – snow and the most beautiful, peaceful, wild, wavy water and me.
I stood there and listened, and smelled, and felt the snow fall on my cheeks. ”Home” is what I thought.
The 2023 Women In Water session season has come to a close. I look forward to it all year long, plan for it, brainstorm and dream. It’s here and it’s a beautiful thing, and then we put the shallow pool and the cheese cloth away for another year. It’s really much like summers here in Maine, short and sweet. This one has been rather wet too which impacted our water sessions early on as, unlike a regular portrait session, its nice to have that glitter of gorgeous light coming through the trees and reflecting off the water. Pure magic…
This morning, my Women In Water session books are gently closed on this season but I have opened them for the 2024 season. If you have experienced a water session, or you have assisted with one, first of all thank you, and secondly, you know that these sessions are labor intensive. Don’t get me wrong, I live for these but they do take a lot of preparation, planning and physical labor.
I am increasing my prices for Women in Water sessions for the 2024 season. Current pricing is valid for water sessions when booked before Nov. 1st, 2023 for the 2024 season. The price increase will be for 2024 sessions booked after Nov. 1, 2023. If you would like to book now at the current price, here is the link to contact me. This is a very special session and I can only do a limited number each season so don’t miss out on the current pricing.
So as I put away the pool, and at least here in Maine, we put on an extra flannel shirt and do lots of sitting around the fire in the evening, I want to wish you a sweet Autumn. On to fall colors, gorgeous portrait sessions and hopefully lots more Empowered Portraits!
Lots of love from this Scorpio water girl who is also very much a fire girl,
P.S. If you haven’t heard, I have started a podcast called “Fire After 50!” where I interview passionate women over the age of 50 who are living life on their own terms. Tomorrow I interview another amazing women originally from the East Coast who now lives on the West coast. She is all about finding joy, and I think you will love listening to her story.
Back last Oct 1st, at my Empowered Portrait gallery show and celebration, with lots of women within earshot, I declared out loud that I was planning to start a podcast. I had no idea how to navigate doing that but I trusted I could find my way through. With the help of many people and resources, I excitedly launched the “Fire After 50!” podcast on July 28th. “Fire After 50!” is where I sit down with passionate women over the age of 50 and we have intimate and sometimes vulnerable chats about what lights us on fire, what it looks like to listen and trust our intuition, and how we live our lives, often in unconventional ways.
Here are the first 4 episodes and I have several more interesting women with varied backgrounds, passions, work and beliefs in the pipeline! I am loving meeting these women and thoroughly enjoying our conversations! If you don’t want to miss an episode, be sure to “follow” or “subscribe” to “Fire After 50!”
Episode 4 – Layers of Life: Amber Walker Artfully Documents Her Journey
Episode 3 – Cultivating Joy through The Healing Energies of Flowers, Herbs and Nature: Debra Bluth, flower essence maker
Episode 2 – Art, Passion, and the Sea: Fiona Lygo on designing a life she loves!
Episode 1 -“Don’t Bloody Wait!” Revealing Healing Truths through Her Lenswith Kathryn Chapman
Thank you to all who have reached out and let me know they have listened, given me input and just plain have been so supportive! At this age, and way beyond, we still can learn new things and follow our dreams.
After 3 1/2 years of hard work, determination, and many daily practices to help her heal her mind, body and soul, she is here and she is a warrior. This girl is an inspiration to never give up on yourself.
When your 73 year old sister says, “I want to do a water session with you,” you find an assistant/make-up artist, you set up the pool and you go for it!
And after the beautiful session, when she says, “This is the one I want printed for me, or maybe I want a photo album with many of them, you get editing, creating and printing.
She is one of the most ambitious, creative, active, brave and loving women I know. And she is my sister. She has always been there for me, and I hope I have for her. I love you to the moon and back, my sister.
These sessions are very personal, unique and special. Some have felt they are transformative.
Please contact me if you are interested in a Women in Water session. I create them in both Northern Maine on our very private farm, and in Southern Maine in view of the sea.
Since I wrote this a few days ago, I have felt a surge of inspiration creeping in. I welcome it, finally. It feels hopeful and renewing. I am wondering if its the change in time so we are enjoying more hours of sunshine or maybe its just feeling a little lighter from actually getting my thoughts in writing and then releasing them into the world.
We are hosting a fire and a small women’s gathering in Northern Maine to celebrate Spring Equinox this evening, a little early, due to schedules. We will meet after many cold dark months of hibernation, we will share new intentions for the season and release them into the fire. We will write, share and release things that are no longer serving us.
I feel this process has started for me, and I am so grateful.
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger- something better, pushing right back.” – Albert Camus
Winter hinting at Spring
After I published this image with the Camus quote on socials this morning, I realized I have more to say, more to feel, more to express.
These past few months have been strange ones for me. Really, since Jan 1, when I know many people begin hibernating physically and emotionally, I tend to leap into new projects, and jumpstart the new year with excitement and action! I usually begin the new year with a plan and can’t wait til I turn the calendar to Jan and can begin. This year to date has felt a little different…
I go back in my mind to the beautiful celebration of my Empowered Portrait project on Oct 1, ’22. It was such an incredible experience to have so many of the amazing women who participated in my project all be in one room, meet each other and celebrate each other. Such A Gift! And I’ll be honest, I felt pretty proud to have finished the project and hosted (with so much help from so many women) the gallery show and celebration. I knew within a few days of the celebration, I would be gladly caring for my partner for 5 weeks as he went through radiation treatment, and today he is really doing very well! When we wrapped up radiation, we were pretty much in full holiday mode. I was already getting a twinge of “what’s next, where do I go from here” but it wasn’t fully formulating yet in the front of my mind. And I was trying to give myself permission and the time and space to enjoy what I had accomplished, and the holiday season.
In reality, I still had many things “going on.” Beautiful clients to intimately work with and photograph, I took a very eye-opening and oh so helpful grant writing class with Kim Bernard which required lots of work and soul searching, read several excellent books and started scheduling summer portrait sessions and Women in Water sessions which always gets me excited for warmer weather. But in the back of my mind, starting to really poke at me, was “what’s next…”
the hardest part is in the waiting….
I trust the Universe to send around inspiration to me when the timing is right. I am trying to give myself grace to let things naturally bubble to the surface. I have many thoughts, ideas, exciting dreams and a few fun things in my pocket that I am currently working on. But I think there is something bigger and even more perfect for me in the cards… I just need to be still and wait and listen closely.
The patience, and the truest gifts, are in the waiting…
So I will wait and listen, talk to trusted friends, consult with a a creative counselor, and stay open to the possibilities…and graciously wait.
Lots of love to you all on this cusp of Spring Equinox. Warmer weather is on our doorstep.
She tells me she would have worn her gypsy outfit if she didn’t think I might think she was crazy. Are you kidding me? She had me at gypsy! In a tiny Northern Maine town, with her backyard overlooking Mount Katahdin, this gypsy-spirited woman makes her life exactly as she chooses. She has lived on this farm for many years, first in a tent, then a stock trailer, and now in a tiny house which once was only a basement. She fills it with her art, and her animals that are not yet old enough to live outdoors. Everything is as neat as a pin and has its own place, an ability I envy as I’d love to live in a tiny house but I am not organized or a neat knick. I am invited into her home through a common friend, another horse lover, as she is…
Fiddle-playing gypsy 
Nanette Faye Photography 