My good friend and sister in Christ, Alexis Ragan is beginning an amazing adventure by launching her website, blog, and Instagram for her vision, Vessels of Light. In her words, Vessels of Light is a site, "Housing Literary Vessels that Shine the Light of Jesus Christ." We have worked together to produce visuals for her work, and it has been so special to be a part of her journey. For this "Seeking" shoot, we drove to Idyllwild in the pouring rain and shot in freezing temperatures. While I don't recommend this haha, we found that our process of creating the imagery modeled the very ideas we wanted to portray: a journey of seeking, tiredness, risk, joy, and being uncomfortable in growth. We wanted to show movement and the feeling of truly chasing after something wholeheartedly.


Alexis is truly a light in the world, and I am honored to call her friend.

I now invite you to read her poem, "Deer Tracks" based on Psalm 42.

Deer Tracks

By Alexis Ragan


Quiet: If you hold your breath from beating,

there’s a panting in the woods. 

How long has the herd yearned for quenching

more than antlers and hooves? Were just as 

parched as the doe dry with sorrow, using mist for 

offspring drinks in between waves of mass migration. 

 

Thirsty snouts scrape below the bush and weep: 

              “The World’s Gone Dry”

Until the fawn came back damp that day gauzed from 

the spinney, dew dropped in the glassy ponds of her 

footprints now hydrating the herd to pick up and move.

 

At this point it feels like we're following deer tracks.

They stopped, so they’re sleeping, so maybe we should

rest too. On a sheet of tough silk laid down from our

tears, the trunk of tears I gathered for us to sleep on,

 

the fabric feels dry, like a heaving throat roped in hot air,

I could have sworn it fell from my eyes already solidified. 

There is one thing: an occasional gust likes to whisper light 

down our spines in the times of precipitation, preaching:

 In exile → float on → in exile → float on  

 

And sometimes when the rain claps like a baby rattle 

in the hand of a child who begins to think their mother 

won’t return – fast and anarchic and fatally blue – fig 

branches bend backwards, making arches that match

the curve in the back of a lady dancing all on her own.

 

A breeze brushed against my bare nape: 

aqueous, silky, smooth, singing how 

the well of sweet water waits near

We followed the tracks to the top of the hill. 

And never went thirsty again. 


 


BOOK TWO: PSALMS 42—72

PSALMS 42

Yearning for God in the Midst of Distresses

To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the sons of Korah.


"As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me,

“Where is your God?” When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me.

For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God,

With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.

O my God, my soul is cast down within me;

Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan,

And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar.

Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me.

The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall  be with me—

A prayer to the God of my life. I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me?

Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As with a breaking of my bones,

My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him,

The help of my countenance and my God."



find more of her work

Alexis Ragan

Alexis Ragan is a creative writer and singer, or as she delights to think of it, a literary vessel for Christ’s light to dwell, convinced that art serves as a powerful window of worship that helps lead humanity back to God’s heart. As a seasoned ESL instructor who is passionate about poetry, music, and global missions, she one day plans to blend her love for writing and teaching for the sake of the Great Commission.

Vessels of Light

Book Your Date Today!


Please fill out the form to get in contact!