The word was made flesh

In 2019, I released my first book: Living Namaste: Photography and Spoken Word Poetry. It was born from a sense of deep division in the world, and my wanting to hold onto something more human. More whole.

I had traveled across continents, meeting strangers who greeted each other with a bow, a smile, a hand to the heart—wishing one another peace, happiness, good health, and an ease of spirit.

No politics. No borders. Just humanity, seen and honored.

I wanted to capture that spirit— through the lens and poetic form.

Now, years later, I feel the stirrings of a second book. One with the same name: Living Namaste, but this one will be all words, a narrative, a quiet exploration of how it might look to truly live that spirit day by day, breath by breath, even now.

And honestly?

I’m struggling with it. Some days, it feels nearly impossible to hold all that’s happening in the world.

The cruelty. The noise. The endless headlines thick with division and despair.

It’s as if the veil has lifted, and every buried shadow has clawed its way to the surface.

Rage.

Inhumanity.

Incompetence.

Injustice.

Living in a spirit of Namaste seemed so far out of reach but then these moments of grace, challenge and inspiration call me back. I was reminded what Albert Einstein said, "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." Dr. Martin Luther King said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." I saw these words made flesh last Thursday here in Philadelphia, PA.

I stood behind my camera as I photographed approximately 90 people from 30 different communities standing together outside the U.S. Immiration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. They gathered through the New Sanctuary Movement, a collective working to end injustices against immigrants, regardless of staus, and to live out the values of dignity, justice and radical welcome.

Their mission:

To build community across faith, ethnicity, and class.

To ensure sacred spaces — churches, mosques, temples, synagogues — are not violated.

To demand due process for migrants, a fundamental human right.

I watched them create an altar—not of gold or doctrine—but of everyday objects symbolizing life, spirit, and connection to God... and where God is, they reminded us, there must also be love.