Coden, Alabama

Some people find heaven in the hushed sanctuaries, the quiet alcoves, the stained glass hallways of their youth. For me, God has always been somewhere else. Out in the fields, where the tall grass stretches above my knees and the dandelions sway to a beat all their own. In the sticky air of a Southern summer evening, drenched in the calls of katydids and bullfrogs. In the ceaseless whisper of waves lapping against a weathered pier, the splendid pinks of a dying sunset.

I have had profound moments of peace while standing in church, but in nature, in the South that I love, I am brought to my knees and reborn, over and over again.