“An axe is no good without a temper.” - Theron D. Humphrey

This simple quote from my Grandfather effortlessly captured the tension and beauty of growing up in a Southern family in North Carolina.

In the winter of 2010 I traveled to my Grandfathers farm one last time before the cancer in his bones took his life. Years of heartbreak controlled by a raised hand, slipped away as I traveled down Highway 17 towards Pollocksville, NC.

My Grandfather was amongst the last of a generation. Men that served in World War II, Men that raised crops on small farms. Men that created a sense of place and community in rural North Carolina.

These images are my peace with a place I spent many summers. And with a man I feared, but grew to love. Ravi Zacharias wrote, “Having the freedom to love when you may choose not to love is to give love legitimate meaning.”

The love of family, the love of our history, calls us to remember the mark of those before us.

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