This spring break, we decided to take a vacation here in the good old USofA. The Great American Family Vacation. Well, sort of. I had dreams of driving up through the national parks of the American Southwest. The kids had dreams of beaches and sunshine.
So we compromised and went to the Pacific Northwest to spend spring break in Olympic National Park.
Now, if you know anything about the Pacific Northwest (and I did), you know that in late March it is mostly just cold and rainy. We planned to stay in cabins at various points in the park, see the mountains if the passes were open (they weren’t), and just generally soak up nature (we did).
I went out there with an ulterior motive. This writer’s block thing I am dealing with is eating at me. I went out there hoping to find my creativity out there in the woods. I did silly things to tempt it out. Things like keeping a weird little scrapbook-y travel journal. Like sending my mom a postcard every single day for the entire trip.
And you know what?
I found something. Hiding in the moss. Tucked between the trees. Whispering through the pounding of the surf and the crackle of the fire of our cabin’s wood stove. I found myself able to write again.
It’s here. My creativity. My writing self. It’s not gone. It’s fighting against the other stresses that take up space in my brain, but it isn’t lost forever.
Knowing that helps.
Enjoy some pretty pictures. These are more film photos. All shot on my canon. Some with Ektar 100 film, others with Portra 160, and still others with the cheapest Kodak ISO 400 film I could find.
Molly Elizabeth Atkins 