Overhead of the bow of a wooden boat. Green paint is beginning to lift and peel. Two black ropes thread through metal holders.

Boat in the Smith College pond, ~2004.

#edge #blueskyartshow #eastcoastkin #photography #boat #green

Black and white photo of a white woman’s hand under running water. Overlaid with text that reads, “Launching the Lancey Letters. A new Substack on ritual, ceremony, and rites of passage. Includes: A Year of Mimi - a grief project weaving loss, grief, ancestral work, shadow work, memory, and legacy. Balances.substack.com

The Lancey Letters - essays and photos from the liminal. Grief, death, ritual, ceremony, and rites of passage.

open.substack.com/pub/jalancey...

#eastcoastkin #grief #deathdoula #ritesofpassage #ceremony

I only knew the hot sun above burned my skin but didn’t penetrate the deep waters. That my grandmother was a force. And I longed to be brave and wild. 🧵5/5

This was when I was young, a colt with spindle legs and impossibly long feet. I didn’t yet know that the shock and pain of icy waters could hardly compare to the shocks and pains some lives must bear. 🧵4/5

I would stand, ankle deep, my feet burning until they went numb, watching her sink into the icy embrace of the water, thinking she was the bravest woman I knew. 🧵3/5

She was there for the business of a swim in glacial waters. I felt like a timid little fool watching her walk in as though the water wasn’t stabbing her as it did me. As though the pebbly sand wasn’t digging into her tender feet as it was mine. 🧵2/5

When my grandmother lived on the big lake, she would take me every summer morning down to its pebble beach. She didn’t set up on a towel to sun bathe and watch me swim as the other adults did. 🧵1/5

#grief #grandmother #watermother #water #griefproject

Love the composition here. 👏🏻

Utah landscapes are bonkers. Gorgeous shot.

A small house in the bottom right corner is dwarfed by a massive mesa in the background. Blue skies and fluffy white clouds above.

Mesa in New Mexico. Though I don’t remember exactly where.

#BlueSkyArtShow
#Stone #newmexico #eastcoastkin #clouds #mesa #highdesert

Fruit also reminds me of Mimi, but that’s a story for another day.

The plum tree’s blossoms are a first sign of Spring. Only it isn’t time yet. It’s only the first few days of March, and despite the 70 degree temperatures now, we could very well get a frost in April. This doesn’t bode well for any backyard fruit harvest this year.

“We should tell everyone to wear something pink,” I heard myself say as we planned the funeral. Pink was her color. As were red, and blue, but pink was the color she was known for. Say the words, “pink parka,” to anyone in my family, and it will be Mimi that springs to mind. Mimi and her pink parka.

The pink blossoms remind me of Mimi. The elegance reminds me of Mimi. Flowers and gardens remind me of Mimi. But “reminds me” isn’t exactly it. It is more…in my blood. In the marrow of my bones. In life, and in death, she has always been woven into the fabric of me.

The plum tree just outside the kitchen window is in full blossom, a stunning, elegant display of cheerful pink against the pale yellows of last year’s grass.

A view out a window. In the foreground a tree covered in pink blossoms.

Albie is up early, and therefore, I am up early. The house is quiet. I let Albie outside to do his business while I prepare his breakfast. Birdsong drifts in through the open door, along with early morning sun.

#grief #griefwork #plumtree #pinkblossoms #eastcoastkin

Thank you. 🙏🏻

Absolutely stunning light. Beautiful!

At the diner, a living time capsule, our waitress brought hot coffee, orange juice, French toast, sausage, bacon and eggs to the table. A row of Vermont maple syrup sat on the counter for sale, for the tourists. Mimi would have clucked her tongue at the snow. “Awful weather,” she would have said.

The sun was out, but the roads were still snow-covered. I felt the tires slipping, looking for traction, felt the familiar sense of skating, only I was in the back seat instead of behind the wheel. I eyed the driver in the rear view mirror. How many Vermont winters had he driven in? 4/5

I was worried about our puppy, who we had reluctantly boarded, finding reassurance in it only being for a weekend, and now it was to be two nights longer. The morning after the storm, we ordered an Uber to take us down the road to the Parkway Diner. 3/5

That storm shut down the airport in Burlington, and with it, our flight home. We spent two days holed up in our hotel, checking out the window between naps and hotel television, debating how many inches had accumulated. 2/5

The inside of an old time diner. Booths line the right. On the left a long countertop with classic metal stools upholstered in red vinyl. An older couple sits in one of the booths. The woman faces away from the camera across from the man. He wears a flat cap and a green winter coat and is listening to something the woman is saying. His hair is white and he has a white mustache and white goatee. A young white woman stands in the center walkway. She has long, dark blonde hair and is bending slightly forward holding a heavy industrial rubber mat meant to soak up water and slush. Through the windows you can see a snowy winter scene.

The day of my grandmother’s funeral it was bitterly cold. There were warnings on the radio, on the weather apps. A cold snap just ahead of a historic snowstorm that stretched from the Southwest all the way to the East Coast. 1/5 #vermont #burlington #eastcoastkin #stunday #photographersofbluesky

Buckets of peaches underneath a rustic wagon wheel window set into yellow brick.

New Mexico peaches. 🍑

#BlueSkyArtShow #Round #BlueSkyPhotography #photographersofbluesky

Low clouds in the sky. A fence with a white gate, and fall foliage in the background.

Strange clouds over the farm.

#BlueSkyArtShow #clouds #eastcoastkin #Vermont

Thank you. 🙏🏻

Hot air balloon on the ground. A group of people are gathered around the basket as the pilot fires the burner.

Corrales, NM 2024

#fire #light #ArtYear #OnlyBeautifulThings #SensoryArt #newmexico #hotairballoon

Black and white photo of a brick, multi story building set against a stormy sky.

Montpelier, Vermont, 2017.

#EastCoastKin #StunDay #ClassicMono #BlackAndWhite #B&W #Monochrome #PhotographersOfBlueSky

A tri-colored standard poodle puppy with a holiday bandana around his neck sits on a stair, looking at the camera. Next to him is a large, red Christmas ball.

Been absent because….NEW PUPPY!

#puppy #standardpoodle #blueskypets

7 small motorboats float anchored just off shore, in a line.

#Summer in Maine, 2007.

#BlueSkyArtShow #photography #boats #onlybeautifulthings #photohour #ArtYear #EastCoastKin