Field Notes Blog
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
Field Note No. 2: Little DeAn'Na Uncovers the Buried City Within
When I was little, I dreamed of becoming an archaeologist. I imagined uncovering ancient cities with nothing more than a small brush and a patient heart. Decades later, I discovered that the greatest excavation wasn't waiting beneath distant ruins, but within myself. In this Field Note, I reflect on deeper listening, the hidden relationships that quietly shape our lives, and the surprising realization that the writing itself had become the brush uncovering a buried city within. Perhaps, as you read, another room will quietly reveal itself in your own landscape.
Feeling Stuck in Life | A Personal Story of Becoming and Inner Growth
There are moments in a personal growth journey when something shifts without warning. What begins as a simple realization can unfold into a deeper sense of self-discovery, revealing that what once felt like being stuck in life was actually a quiet process of becoming. This reflection explores what it feels like to arrive… and still find yourself emerging.
Touching My Own Ground
A winter storm slowed everything down long enough for me to touch my own ground again. This is a reflection on thawing after rupture, self-forgiveness, unarmored presence, and returning home without rebuilding who I am.
I Allow My Light to Remember Its Way of Seeing
This image came to me while I was simply being here. Not trying. Not asking. Just present. I saw the light moving through my hair, not as symbol, but as memory, and I realized I already hold all the light that I am. In times when the world feels loud and heavy, this remembering feels essential. I allow my light to remember its way of seeing.
Gentle Rambling~
What is the truth of this moment, of each moment, of any moment? I have learned that whatever my mind brings onto my screen for viewing is rarely the truth. It is not about truth at all, but about the experience and flow of each moment as it moves through us.