by Ashley Larkin | May 19, 2014 | Community, Mothering, Parenting
I grew up with one younger sister and later stepsisters added to the mix. I babysat gaggles of girls. For three years through my teens, I counseled middle school girls at outdoor school. For three and a half years, I mentored elementary-aged and adolescent girls who I...
by Ashley Larkin | Apr 25, 2014 | Community, Five Minute Friday, Love
{The hokey pokey with good friends} We hold space for one other. To work it out from the knots of the middle. To be unique thinkers and feelers. To struggle and strain and to laugh at our own jokes. We fill the room for each other. Packing up boxes and strapping on...
by Ashley Larkin | Mar 13, 2014 | Community, Faith, Gratitude, Perspective, Tell His Story
If I could bottle the drippy treasures for you in bottles, I would. Cup my hands to catch the prayers and the locked gazes and nodding me-too’s. Hold the wisdom of those who share the ways of word loving (and word struggling), of storytelling and eyes opening...
by Ashley Larkin | Mar 12, 2014 | Celebration, Community, Family, Grace, Gratitude, Joy, Love, Poetry
In her treehouse the light pours across the cut camellias and mug of peppermint tea, steam tendrils rising against a periwinkle sky The ancient typewriter sits on the shelf keeping guard over all the books, so many words drawn in wise tenderness by writers before She...
by Ashley Larkin | Feb 27, 2014 | Community, Faith, Fear, Risk-taking
I drive back from dropping off my youngest, and the wind is howling, nudging my big rig side to side. Tuesday is garbage day and as I near my house, I see every street littered by pieces of trash that have fallen from knocked over cans, swept up in gusts. I pull in...
by Ashley Larkin | Feb 19, 2014 | Community, Perfectionism, Perspective, Surrender, Truth-telling
Sad to say and a little hard to admit, but I used to dread hosting people in our home. Michael was the one with the “hospitality gift,” and though I liked the idea of it, opening our house usually filled me with such anxiety and fear of judgment that I...
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