THIS MOMENT

Today, the last day of something
I once knew to be true

My boy, small and frail
Limited in his days
Crawls into my arms
Fills them with love
The sun permeates my skin
Gratitude vibrates through my being

Yet still, I feel the loom
Perhaps part of my timeless soul
Keeping me grounded in reality

I see this moment
I enter into the moment
I romanticize it
Surely, just this one time this will stay

I feel the gravity of this moment all the more
And here, in this breath I understand love in a new way
I’d like to keep this moment,
Grasp it, call it forever.
Sink into the feeling, that this is the way it will always be

But it won’t. It will change. Everything changes.

In the end, is anything the same as it was?
Is there anything, held within the walls of time
That we can truly call our own?

And so, love invades my vision and my meek understanding of this life all the more

Here in this moment, my soul rejoices
And when the times comes
Without question, I will weep just the same

With time brings necessary dying
Even the reflection of my face
Staring back at me today
Isn’t one I recognize

As my boy wiggles out from underneath
The tight grasp I realized I had on him
He looks back to catch my unforgiving gaze...
“For our good” His tender little eyes say to me
“For my good” I repeat

In this moment
In my grief
And in my hope

LILLIE IS A FILM PHOTOGRAPHER, WRITER, and POET
 

She believes that there is a deep inter-connectivity that dwells deeply within us all. Spiritual and human connection has always been the driving force and inspiration for every piece of art and writing Lillie presents to the world. Her mission in life is to use art and human connection to walk people through the valleys of grief and trauma. There is a deep need to help everyone who comes in contact with her art, feel and see a world they have never known before, a depth and beauty awaiting an awakening within themselves. Lillie is known for her depth of understanding, profoundly articulate nature, terribly honest words, and brutally empathetic, soft spirit.

There came a day where everything I once knew to be true now escaping from formed shadows seemed hard to know, hard to believe at face value any longer. This type of deep wrestling of the soul has the potential to excavate the soul if we let it. This is where the art, wisdom, and deep emphatic love comes from.

I was 27 when the Darkest Night of my soul fell upon me. Tragedy had come, grief became my nearest known feeling as I walked right into an existential crisis hidden within the walls of the deepest valley I could have ever imagined for myself and my family.

It is part of me now, part of my story, part of my calling in life. I am to know grief. I am to know trauma. I am to know the way it affects every tiny part of one's mind, body, and soul. I am to know it but not just for the sake of knowing but for the sake of others. To walk alongside others and weep when they weep.

We all have stories. Our stories have meaning. The meaning often times is far beyond us, but yet held within a connection with humans and ultimately leads to a deeper communion with our Creator.

As I walk this journey back home to myself, I will take the next few years to become a Grief and Trauma Specialist, undergoing one training after the next to seek to understand and know all of the aspects of grief and trauma, how it has the power to disconnect us from others and ourselves.

Writing, poetry, photography...all of these things have always been a part of me but now they are my voice. My way of reaching people with the story given to me. My way of saying...yes there is hope even in the deepest roots in the coldest valley of life...there is hope.

Warmly,
Lillie

FILM PHOTOGRAPHER

Lillie has been a professional photographer for over 7 years. At a crucial turning point in her journey as a woman, mother, and artist she began focusing on the art of photography and less on the business of photography. In her pursuit to live a slower, more intentional life she began to dive into the ever growing world and art of film photography.

One of Lillie's great callings in life is working with women on their spiritual and emotional awareness journey, helping women to see their greater purpose and calling in life. This is why, of all the photography Lillie has done, feminine portraiture has been the deepest and most meaningful. Using her softness and ability to see people for who they are she is able to create beautiful feminine portrait work.

POET AND WRITER

Since an early age Lillie was reading classic poets like Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau. Poets and men like this have shaped her mind and writing over all of the years. Poetry was her first art form and still to this day remains the deepest and most impactful way she shares her story, love of God, and healing through grief with the world.

“Lillie Duncan has a natural way of capturing small moments and stretching them into beautifully poetic contemplative prose and poetry. Her work is place where wonder and knowing intertwine and soft innocence and fierce wisdom dance in fluid harmony. Something like a dream, a safe harbor and wildfire of blazing truth all combined.”

Quote from Victoria Erickson,
Author of EDGE OF WONDER and Rhythm and Roads

As seen in

Lillie has a parenting column in Folk Rebellion's paper The Dispatch which comes out monthly.

Simple Parenting: Deconstructing Boxes | Folk Rebellion

Searching for the Broken Ones | Folk Rebellion

Wellness Woman

Unvael Journal

Contact