2019 — Hannah Elise Schultz

Adventures in
Serendipity

— Hannah Schultz (biographical name): a Kentuckian, traveler, PhD student, hiker, environmentalist, and Great Pyrenees enthusiast

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things

A Year in Pictures: 2019

Happy New Year! This has been a weird year: personally, there have been a lot of really-not-great moments, some amazing travels, some blessed days spent out in nature, and professionally/academically, I’ve achieved my dream of teaching creative writing, published another short story, and finished a draft of my thesis. I know 2020 will bring many changes, some hard but necessary, others long-awaited and full of joy (Ryan and I are finally going to be married this year!), but I believe ultimately light will break through the darkness. So here’s to hope in this new decade.