I spent the last day of the year walking through a pine forest and a field, a clearing at Daniel’s Peace Memorial Park. It’s a lovely place, imbued with love and pain and magic. When I say that I felt held by a place, I mean just that — I felt held. I felt seen, I felt safe.
The park opened in 2016 and was created to honor Daniel Weidle, who died from an overdose after struggling with opioid addiction. A friend of mine told me about this place a while back, and I had made a note to visit and then promptly forgotten. Then recently, another friend posted some gorgeous, haunting images from her visit there. I remember thinking, I have to see this place and now is the time. And so on the last day of the year, craving some sort of crossing-through experience, I did.
ashley bethard 