Beth Morey's Blog, page 12

All I Can Do is Hope {The Final Weeks of Pregnancy after Loss}

33 weeks at our maternity photo session with MDK Photography
Sometimes I wonder if I should hold myself back, if I should stop expecting so much.

After all, with our daughter, I expected life, and we got death. 

But then, with our first son, I braced for death and found my arms filled with the sweetest, squirming life.

And anyway, I can't help it.  In these moments when doubt arises, I just can't.  I can't let myself go there.  I can't/won't/can't let fear rob me of this sacr...

Life Lately {Art, Pregnancy, + Parenting Updates}

It feels like it's been so quiet here lately!  And really, I didn't last post all that long ago, but it's longer ago than usual for what I try to do so it seems like f o r e v e r.  Here's a bit of what's been going on . .


Even though I haven't been creating very much, I've been having some #artistlife excitement.  I sold my art at a local craft fair about a month ago . . .


. . . and right now some of my original paintings are currently on display in my favorite coffee shops for...

The Phoenix Soul: Vision is Here!

The latest issue of The Phoenix Soul online magazine (formerly named Sprout) is here!  Fresh off the digital presses, this month's edition centers around the theme of Vision, with contributions from some of my favorite artists, like the fierce Heather Mattern and delicious Carissa Paige (yum yum). 

I've been so enjoying writing for and reading this publication for many years now, and I love how each new issue delights and challenges me.  Plus, they're really, really pretty. ...

On the Beginning of the End (Again)

at 28 weeks in my second pregnancy, summer 2012
Well, it's here.  Again.  My third trimester.

I've been dreading it.  Which I know might sound quite awful, because shouldn't every week that brings this baby closer to his birth make me happy?

And they do.  And yet.

My first pregnancy ended in stillbirth just weeks into my third trimester.  My second pregnancy's third trimester saw me trekking up and down huge mountains of anxiety each day, not to mention going on and off b...

The Price of Becoming Who You Are?

I thought we were the forever kind of friends.  Family, I called us.  The kind who would be there when days pass dizzy like a maze, or hearts sink as heavy as stones in the salted ocean.

And I tried really hard to be a good friend (although I'm sure I wasn't always) -- by which I meant a not-too-much friend, and maybe that's really where things went wrong, at the beginning instead of at the end, like it feels.  Maybe I shouldn't have made my grief so palatable in person, or drai...

The Now of Motherhood

Time is slipping away from me.

As January dawned, I found myself suddenly halfway through this pregnancy.

Just five more months before my life gets really interesting/challenging/beautiful/sleep-deprived, I thought to myself.  What do you want to accomplish in that time?

I meant it as a challenge to myself.  A professional challenge, and a creativity challenge.  How many words could I put to paper in five months?  How many paintings could I finish?  How many new follower...

5 Ways Writing a Book is Totally Like Being Pregnant

image by Ellen Kohlenberg via a Creative Commons license
I know, I know.  It's one of the oldest and most cliched writing metaphors around.  Writing a book = being pregnant.  Pish posh, tell us something new.

But I can't, because I'm writing a book.  And I'm pregnant.  And I can't stop thinking about the ways in which the two connect.

And anyway, it's only cliche because it's true -- like, really, really true, which is why people make the analogy so often.

So I give you,...

2015 Word of the Year {#OneWord365}

from my painting Heart-FollowerFor the past couple of years, I've picked a guiding word or phrase for each 365 day run, hoping that this would help me to better hone in on my goals for that period of time.  And -- the practice has been life-changing for me, in beautiful and challenging ways.

This year, I'm doing it again.

But I feel like picking this year's word is particularly challenging, because 2015 is (if all goes well) a birthing year.  We'll be welcoming a new baby into our liv...

Delicious Words: The Best of Books Devoured in 2014

I love reading.  L O V E reading.  Books have sustained me through some of the hardest challenges of my life.  They are inspiration, education, and sanctuary.  They challenge and uproot.  They uplift my whole person.

That said . . . I've been rather lax in my reading.  Part of it is that being a mama takes up a lot of time (in an awesome way), but then after my sweet boy goes to bed, it's honestly easier to take in some TV shows on Amazon Prime than it is to pick...

Last Day for EU Residents to Purchase E-Books {#VATMOSS}

You may or may not have heard of the new European Union VAT tax which is being applied to the sale of digital/downloadable items like books, music, ecourses, and more.  It's strangely not getting a lot of publicity, even though it is going to adversely affect many, many small businesses and independent artists like myself.  Basically, business owners are being required to pay an additional tax to the home countries of EU residents that purchase ditial items from them.  I find i...