Hi, I’m Rachel.

I’m an adventure lovin’, thrill seeking, photographer and writer based in Phoenix AZ, and Minneapolis, MN. My heart beats for cacti, city skylines, handcrafted old fashioneds and potatoes in any form.

In 2017 I lost my mom to suicide and spiraled down the awkward and emotionally isolating experience commonly referred to as grief. My story doesn’t exactly have an a-ha! moment because the light bulb that lit up for me was on a dimmer switch but since her death I slowly discovered that grief doesn’t happen in a vacuum, but alongside a mixture of all the other human emotions—joy, hope, fear, anger, and even love. Grief’s imprint taught me that life is precious and sparked me to quit my 9-5, uproot my life to the desert, and pursue my passion for creative storytelling full time.

Now I navigate life with my camera in one hand and a pen in the other and my blog is a mashup of love stories, brand stories, mental health and grief stories (it’s a niche), and my “real life” (I can’t make this shit up) stories. I bring heart and a little humor to even the toughest of stories and candidly share about a range of topics including living through loss, grief, and new beginnings, and how to run a creative based business.

Latest From The Blog

Posts tagged how to forgive someone

The 5 Stages Of Grief As Applied To My 5 Day Cross Country Move | Part 2: Denver Colorado

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The 5 Stages Of Grief As Applied To My 5 Day Cross Country Move | Part 3: Santa Fe, NM

My journey through those five stages of grief weren't stops on some linear timeline like my treck west to Phoenix. But those two thousand miles in between had taught me a lot. Bridging the border into Arizona, I remembered one of my favorite quotes the poet Jenna Cecelia penned, "Healing isn't taking the fast lane down the highway. Healing is taking the back roads with potholes and dead ends." Grinning as I remembered it, I knew for my healing that I was going to need to stay present and take my life off cruise control. If I was going to rewrite my ending, then it would start by putting in the work. I knew true healing and transcendence would only come when I finally faced my painful stories and wrestled with what they had to teach me.

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