Heath Stiltner

As strange as the current circumstances are, I’m keeping grounded by thinking back on the same months of different years. This is temporary, and if it takes us staying home to take care of our friends, families, & neighbors we can do it together. On this day in March 2017, I was in Los Feliz staying in the coziest guest cottage at @tatianatensen’s. I spent my afternoon walking the busy streets and taking photos of town and the simplest things that brought me so much inspiration. I caught up with @keeganjoyce—who I’m way overdue to catch up with. I was deciding it was finally time to figure out my next steps in life, and it was the trip that helped me decide I needed to go back to school the following year to finish my degree.

Took a walk to easy the stir crazy quarantine vibes. It’s nice to see that while we are removing ourselves from the streets and outdoors for a short time, spring is slowly coming to life outdoors. 🌿🌸

This is a post about this sick Bakugo and Badtz Maru shirt I got at @boxlunchgifts. #mha #sanrio #boxlunch 📸: @inactivebarista

This is one of my favorite spots on campus. I’ll never get over the way the granite wall reflects the painting of Myrtle.

Woke up to a surprise blanket of snow.

If @dollyparton is going to put herself out there, I might as well too. Challenge accepted. Find me in the places above or a local @target spending $10 because I’m bored.

Hazy sunset walks home.

Oh, hey. Night mode is awesome. (Thanks for the assist @j_nilz)

A couple of days ago, someone asked me if I felt like Magic was real. I had a hard time answering it, because the knee jerk reaction was, to me, an obvious ‘yes.’ Why was it obvious, though? I found myself thinking of all the times I felt the energy of the world just converge in a way that was too magical to be blind luck. I guess to me, Magic is that spiritual experience of the unexplainable and unasked for happening at just the right moment. I’m not a deeply religious person. That’s not to say that I don’t believe in religion, I feel specific religious belief is beautiful in others...but I take a spiritually syncretic approach and try to operate on a ‘rose by any other name’ modality. For me, the divine is within and without us. It’s everywhere we go, and definitely in all the places we might not have gone yet, and may never find. I was trying desperately to think of a way to explain what I meant by that, an event that seemed so insignificant but so powerful that I felt it was magical. Suddenly, I remembered the time that I was heading home on I-81. I had lived a year where I felt I’d had all the good hammered out of me; yet suddenly as I passed through the Shenandoah Valley, a hot air balloon appeared on the horizon. I just remember feeling like it touched that one last speck of good inside me and suddenly a floodgate of emotion overwhelmed me. Hope. Hope is a hot air balloon. That hot air balloon, that hope, that was magic. This morning, I logged into an old @vsco account, and would you believe that this photo still lived there? Rising out of the static noise of the digital world, this balloon found me again. Never stop believing in magic, because it brings us the hope we need to soar.

Happy New Year! Here’s to the next decade, and the year I turn 30 (check back in July). The ‘10s and my 20s were a rollercoaster. I found myself in extreme highs and the lowest of lows, but above all I grew and learned to enjoy change. Through failed jobs, relationships, friendships, and plans I finally learned to accept and grow from the bad parts and reach and work toward the good. This year I finished an undergrad degree I never thought I’d finish and started a job I never thought I’d have, and it has reminded me that we are never too old to finish unfinished business or try new things. Here’s to clear vision and good intentions in 2020!

Congratulations to Kentucky’s new governor Andy Beshear, and his wife Britainy Beshear. #ky #inauguration #andybeshear #politics

Today’s sure to be a great day and a great start for Kentucky. Congratulations and welcome to our new governor @andybeshearky. It was an honor to work with he and his cabinet to capture all of their inaugural portraits. Hopeful for an exciting four years! #ky #kentucky #democrat #inauguration #governor #andybeshear #andybeshear2019

That’s a wrap!

I hope your wish for November 11th was for the first snow, because it’s already happening.

Double denim boos for trouble. 💀💀 Also, apparently Canadian tuxedo vibes are in the air because @briansimspa and I are matching.

Rounding it out.