The wilderness is the oldest, truest friend a human can have, both in body and in spirit.
It teaches in silence.
It speaks without words.
It holds space for your becoming, your undoing, your return.
And it is only “dangerous” when we forget to honor it, or refuse to learn from and respect it.
We talk so much about perspective—about changing our view, reframing the story, finding the silver lining in the storm cloud.
But sometimes, perspective doesn’t shift easily.
Sometimes, circumstance leaves you standing exactly where you’ve always stood. The view is the same. The light hits the same edges. The shadows fall in familiar places.
But even when the scene remains unchanged…the focal point doesn’t have to.
Focus is a choice.
A sacred, stubborn one.
It’s the difference between staring at the problem and noticing the petal behind it.
It’s where your attention lands, and where your energy follows.
It’s learning to zoom in on grace even when grief is still in the frame.
In these frames, nothing moved.
Not the flower. Not the light. Not the angle.
Only the focal point changed.
And with that subtle shift, a new vision — a new truth— came forward.
Almost always—including in life, and despite circumstance—the best composition doesn’t come from changing the scene but from learning which part of it to focus on.
catacosmosis // 2025
The real you is not a puppet which life pushes around; the real, deep down you is the whole universe. (Alan Watts)
The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves. (Alan Watts)
I stood in the green hush, face to face with a bloom so intricate it felt like a secret whispered by the wild. The passionflower doesn’t need to perform. It simply is. Unapologetically strange. Beautifully complex. Alive.
I thought of the two Alan Watts quotes I’ve included above, and I thought of my dead loved ones. This is what I want to remember:
That being fully present—here, now, in the middle of whatever hurts or heals—is enough.
That passion isn’t always loud.
Sometimes, it curls quietly out of the forest and dares you to look closer.
This is what death has taught me about life.
I’m really grateful I stayed, after they were all gone.
🪽💜✨
catacosmosis // 2025
I used to think “seeing red” meant I was losing it.
Rage. Shame. Fury so old it felt eternal—like I was born with it burning.
I have learned that is not always true. I have witnessed that sometimes, it blooms.
Not in fists. Not in voice. Not in overwhelming memories.
In the woods, on a soft stem I almost missed.
No thunder. No soundtrack. Just the quiet permission to stop and look again.
It didn’t demand to be captured. It didn’t beg to be picked. It just was.
This star-shaped wound of a flower, humming its red into the green—not angry, not hiding, not burning just to survive.
Just be-ing.
I thought, “maybe that’s all any of us need now.”
Not vengeance. Not closure. Just the knowing that beauty still rises where no one’s watching.
That peace can wear red and still be holy.
Be mindful.
Observe.
You might catch a glimpse of the peace behind the red you see, too.
xo,
c.
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As I have practiced it, photography produces pleasure by simplicity. I see something special and show it to the camera. A picture is produced. The moment is held until someone sees it. Then it is theirs. -Sam Abell
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Tools: Mextures (formula KFVIEXP)
Vision: Unsplash, Hotae Kim
Welcome to another installment of Instagram top picks from my gallery. Those of you who have followed my photography for a while know that my strong suit and the genre I love is macro photography. I love getting in close, I love seeing things in a different way, and I love the little details (of both nature and life). I pay attention to EVERYTHING, and I find so much inspiration in the details. This post is a list of my top five favorite macro shots currently in my Instagram gallery (not including droplets, which will be a post in itself). I hope you enjoy it!
05. Little Green Curls
There is infinite beauty in nature, and many lessons in its detail.
**Lumix GF3, Panasonic Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f2.8, manual focus on full, handheld.
04. Bokeh
My favorite bokeh shot I’ve ever done, because the bokeh in this wasn’t done on purpose. It’s just sort of what happened, and this shot introduced me to working with bokeh on purpose.
The plant in this shot was laying on a glass patio table and it made unexpected prettiness with macro filters.
**Pentax K110d, 18-55mm kit lens, +4 macro filter attached, manual focus and handheld.
03. Colors 
“Life begins with a beautiful mind.”
**Pentax K110d, 18-55mm kit lens, +2/+4/+10 macro filters attached (stacked), manual focus and handheld.
02. Skeleton 
I have developed an affinity for death and decay over the last couple of years – I find it strangely beautiful and comforting. Very fitting I suppose, since the summer of this year. I love the detail of the skeleton of this leaf. It tells as beautiful a story to me as the green leaf would have on the tree, or as the fiery leaf would have in it’s fall splendor.
**Sony Alpha 37, 35mm prime f1.8, +1/+2/+4/+10 macro filters attached (stacked), manual focus and handheld.
01. Zen Honeysuckle
My top favorite macro shot is my favorite for a lot of reasons. I love the simplicity, the minimalistic feel, the color, the framing, honeysuckle is special to me (so special that’s what I have tattooed on my left foot/leg, in memory of my Mama Kay), but mostly I love this shot because I did this after mowing my dad’s grass one day this past summer not long before he fell ill, and he was with me when I shot it, watching me work my camera magic and asking me questions about it.
Daddy loved my photography and always encouraged and supported me doing it by being actively involved in it, asking things and being fascinated by it and always telling me encouraging things… He was just an awesome dad.
**Lumix GF3, Panasonic Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f2.8, manual focus on full, handheld.
catacosmosis 