Rustic nature-themed banner reading “Field Notes from The Elemental Lantern,” with flowers, compass, lantern, mountain map, notebook, and chickadee

Field Notes Blog

Ornate antique bronze compass rose with delicate decorative flourishes extending horizontally on either side.

Rustic field notes journal surrounded by a compass, vintage books, lantern, tea cup, pen, maps, and wildflowers

Welcome, Traveler.

These Field Notes are gathered from within the living landscape of The Elemental Lantern. They are a collection of personal essays, observations, and explorations of presence, relationship, nature, creativity, place, history, research, and the ordinary moments that ask us to look a little closer.

Some are born beside a forest trail. Some arrive while listening deeply during a presence session. Others emerge through research, old maps, forgotten places, creative work, dreams, quiet conversation, or ordinary moments that suddenly reveal something extraordinary.

They are not instructions or conclusions. They are observations and companions, records of what happens when something catches my attention and I become curious enough to stay with it for a while.

Sometimes a Field Note begins with an answer. More often, it begins with a question.

Here you may find stories of returning, glimpses of relationship, moments of recognition, symbolic discoveries, research trails, and quiet reminders that we are always in conversation with the places, stories, people, and world around us.

Come wander through. Perhaps something here will ask you to look a little closer, too.

Welcome.

There is a lantern burning nearby.

Recorded by

DeAn'Na Medley

Keeper of the Lantern

Writer, artist, and relational illuminator

Ornate vintage compass rose surrounded by leaves, flowers, ribbons, and a glowing bee

DeAn’Na, Keeper of the Lantern 5/10/26 DeAn’Na, Keeper of the Lantern 5/10/26

When the Co-Healer Becomes the Session: A Letter to the Co-Healer on the Table

What began as a Mother’s Day letter became a living ceremony in real time. Through grief, smoke, roses, memory, and the body’s own language, I found myself on my own healing table, not only holding the lantern, but receiving its light. This is a reflection on becoming the session, softening what had grown rigid, and remembering that the one who holds presence is worthy of being held, too.

DeAn’Na, Keeper of the Lantern 9/14/25 DeAn’Na, Keeper of the Lantern 9/14/25

Crossing the Gridlines: A Moment of Sacred Remembering

A luminous reflection on emotional release, self-love as sacred architecture, and the body's quiet request for cleansing and compassion. A journey of remembrance, reclaiming, and radiant presence.