This morning it's a pleasure to walk under dry skies and revisit Cedar Creek Park, the weeping willow, the footbridges, the rose garden - favorite places I'm walking for the second summer in a row.

I am at home here. This is our International Women's Writing Guild conference home, and there are many friends, and even my daughter, which make it a home. And, this park, this creek, these trees, these walks, these photos, mean home.

The first image that finds me this morning: I call her, Woman in Tree Bark. She has fallen - leapt? - off a nearby tree. Here are many scraps of bark the tree has shed in rainstorms. She is the only sculpted image, though. This woman, the one who sees me, calls my name. She's here at the conference, celebrating and empowering and inspiring and teaching women writers too - a kind of spirit guide, welcoming me home.

This morning, I begin teaching my class. There will be new writers, experienced writers, eager, hungry, creative writers. Our journey together will begin. Woman in Tree Bark, so graceful, so centered, so self-assured and exalted, will come along. She will guide our beginning. 

All photos and text copyright Kelly DuMar 2017