A lifetime of searching and finding meaning, of heart-crushing disillusionments and soul-expanding discoveries, of loves lost and Eros astonishingly unearthed—a force greater than I’d ever imaged.

I’ve meandered through atheism and conventional religion, along the paths of philosophers and poets, artists, sages, and the most ordinary people in whom beauty, goodness, and wisdom dwell—among great trees, ragged coastlines, craggy mountain tops, crystal lakes and flowing rivers—there to feel the fullness of Life moving always in and through it all.

In these pages you’ll find my witness to it all, an unsystematic reporting of what I’ve searched for, found, and am still reaching for.

Poet Mary Oliver gave us three simple instructions for living:

“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

I am.

All photography provided by Elisa Stone Photography