Roma Dawn Photography

16/05/2026

Japan is one of those places that once you visit it’s forever a part of you. Here are just a few of my favorite moments, feelings, and things that brought me joy on my recent trip. I can’t wait to go back again. 🏯🇯🇵🍜🍣🥟

01/05/2026

Some places you just visit, and then some places quietly rearrange you. I have been rearranged. Something happened to me in the Okunoin Cemetary. Not a thing really, more like an experience of being filled to overflowing with silence. And then it wasn’t silence exactly either, but more like a breath that I’ve been holding for a really long time that I finally let out. A breath that maybe I’ve been holding for centuries that now makes all subsequent breaths easier. Here in this forest of towering cedar trees with roots tangled in decades upon decades of memory, I had the distinct knowing that there is a body that I lived in, from another lifetime, whose bones lie buried in this cemetery. My photos here don’t match what I felt. How could they? They feel flat and irrelevant compared to the actual feeling in my body of knowing a place I’ve never been to before. Walking through here, I didn’t feel surrounded by dead people, I felt wrapped in the continuity of human existence. Time felt layered above my head, through my body, and below my feet and every step along the path was a walking meditation between realms. As I wandered deeper into the forest, the names etched in stone began to blur until there was no distinction between stories and then eventually names were no longer discernible, and story no longer mattered. I found myself lingering here far longer than expected, tracing the lines between the visible and the unseen. Thinking about all the lives interred here, feeling certain I was one of them, and then all the lives still unfolding of all who find their way here, somehow braided time together for me. Somewhere in the stillness, I begin to sense that I was not in a place of endings, but of eternal presence. (Read more in comments) 🌸🌸🌸

25/04/2026

At Otagi Nenbutsu-ji, tucked into the edge of the Arashiyama hills on the outskirts of Kyoto, there is a small temple filled with about 1,200 stone statues of rakan, disciples of the Buddha, each carved with a completely unique expression. Some serene, some playful, some laughing… all weathered by time and softened by moss. It feels like a gathering of every aspect of humanity. Some cradle their children, some look amused, some play with their pets, some feel almost mischievous, like they’ve been in on a secret for centuries and they are finally letting you in on the cosmic joke. They aren’t perfect. They aren’t polished. They are very… human. Each face reflects a different mood, a different story, a different way of being in the world. Joy. Grief. Curiosity. Peace. Playfulness. The whole experience of being there brought me so much joy and made me laugh at how often I try to smooth myself into one acceptable version of myself when I was never meant to be just one thing… we all are meant to be many, everything, layered, evolving, and like these weathered faces, imperfect, and somehow more beautiful because of it. Have fun finding an aspect of yourself just in the few I can show here! Which one is your favorite?

07/04/2026

Cherry blossom lover heaven! 🌸

05/04/2026

Volume UP 🌸🐦‍⬛🐸

31/03/2026

31/03/2026

Does anyone else have favorite plants or trees you love to spend time with or is it just me? Like dear friends I don’t see every day, I have my favorite routes and places I like to visit where there are trees that speak to me. I looked it up recently and learned there is a psychological concept called biophilia that explains how humans are wired to feel calm and at home among living things. I also remember reading a book several years ago, called the Hidden Life of Trees, so I intellectually understand the biological connection that I feel, but physically it’s different. When I stand under a tree, I relax.. without even trying I become rooted (pun intended) and feel like I’m a part of their invisible current under my feet. Trees hold time differently too. Like quiet, old friends, they know how to hold space without words. Trees are also like anchors for me. In the wake of tragedy or transition they are reminders that it is possible to endure storms and stay rooted in spite of change… and that growth takes time.

So take a walk with me let me introduce you to just a few of my old friends. Run your fingertips gently across their bark as you listen to their conversations whispering under your feet. 🌲🌳

27/03/2026

Goldilocks days were short this year. Usually March and April are perfect, not too cold, not too hot… “just right” cool nights where I can lie under the stars without a jacket and warm days where I can do a little sun basking without melting. Two months that are like a gift for enduring summer’s impending, incessant sun. Even though hot days have come a little too early, Arizona (often a little on the dramatic side) is putting on as beautiful a show as ever. Here’s a little taste of her springtime beauty. 🌵🏜️☀️

18/03/2026

Today I walked this hallway a little lighter. Not because the storage unit is empty, because I’ve created more space inside myself. Walking the “hall of dread” as I’ve come to know it, for hopefully the last time in this lifetime, I found myself thinking about all the hallways, garages, and boxes that have held pieces and pages of my heart over the years.

Being inescapably human, again, and again I am aware of the complicated truth of owning wanting and needing “stuff”. Stuff of memories reminding me of the way I once lived my life, and stuff of utility - things I “might need” in the future. Sixty plus years of stuff distilled into cardboard boxes, bubble wrap and dust.

My gypsy soul has been tethered to an invisible version of me that no longer quite exists. Somewhere between opening and closing, lifting, sorting, and letting go, I realized that it’s not the stuff that’s hard to carry…. it’s the stories. My stories for sure will always be tethered to me, but the stuff doesn’t need to be. Every thrift shop in every town is proof of that.

Somewhere in the keeping and discarding, I realize that there is freedom in knowing that what I loved is never lost. The remembering of the stories are just changing form.

But please, don’t ask me about my garage. 😋

06/03/2026

In a world that often seems to commemorate last days, I find myself thinking about all the days and all the times I possibly can. Good days, bad days, and all the ordinary ones we think will last forever.

Someone probably famous once said that time exists to keep everything from happening to us all at once which is a good thing because it keeps us from going crazy. And because one day, whether we like it or not, we will all run out of our assumed tomorrows.

So, let’s not be careless with time.
Let’s notice it.
Revel in it.
Love it while it’s here.

Let’s not let it slip unnoticed through our fingers because we haven’t yet found a way to go back and gather the moments we missed.

Let’s believe in all the little things that lift our spirits and remind us of who we are.

Often and without hesitation, let’s tell our people how much they mean to us in case tomorrow has other plans.

Compassion and kindness carry us far so reach out, take a hand, offer yours.

In the end, we’re all swimming in the same sea… and some of the strongest currents we remember are the ones we learned from those who swam beside us for a while. We miss you, Gage MacLeod Swenson 💚♾️🪷