Monthly Archives: March 2025

first christmas

I don’t know…this scene appealed to me.

Also, see that man on the top of the ladder on the right side? No, I didn’t either for a long time.

Presidio, Texas
photographed 2.19.2025

no trash!!

This was the second creepiest cemetery I’ve been to.

What happened is that my traveling companions and I parked down the hill from the cemetery and left our truck unlocked while we walked around the place. All three of us had a uneasy feeling and one of us (it was me) got weepy at the sight of a grave that was marked by a jar of rocks and cross of wire with a chunk of glass in it.

All at once, it seemed like time to leave.

And when we got back to the truck, someone had lowered the tailgate. We didn’t do it before we walked up the hill. And we didn’t see anyone at all nearby.

So then it really seemed like a good time to leave…quickly.

Redford, Texas
photographed 2.19.2025

(The creepiest cemetery? Oh, that’s in Memphis, just off Elvis Presley Boulevard, a totally murdery-feeling place called Mt. Carmel Cemetery. Yikes.)

our gentle sin

Another day, another (seemingly) random song lyric.

Today’s version comes from “Take Me to Church” by Hozier, where he sings “No masters or kings when the ritual begins/there is not sweeter innocence than our gentle sin/in the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene/only then, I am human, only then, I am clean.”

Maybe it’s ironic that these words came to me when I was inside a church that had statues and kings and rituals and etc., but that’s my brain when it’s hopped up on photography and friendship and travel and songs that are wedged in my memory.

Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church
Shafter, Texas
photographed 2.19.2025

forget your perfect offering

Inside a tiny church in the midst of a huge desert…my mind wandered and then the words “forget your perfect offering” came to me as I was making this image.

It’s a line from the Leonard Cohen song “Anthem” – and here’s some of the rest of the song.

Ah, the wars they will be fought againThe holy dove, she will be caught againBought and sold, and bought againThe dove is never free
Ring the bells that still can ringForget your perfect offeringThere is a crack, a crack in everythingThat’s how the light gets in
We asked for signsThe signs were sentThe birth betrayedThe marriage spentYeah, and the widowhoodOf every governmentSigns for all to see

 

The song is more profound now than it was when he wrote it – give it a listen.

Calera Chapel
near Toyahvale, Texas

photographed 2.18.2025

christmas colors

We didn’t cross the border, which was less than two miles away.

But this building and the colors and the old chair with a cactus on it made it feel like maybe we were in another place.

Presidio, Texas
photographed 2.19.2025