by Ashley Larkin | Feb 7, 2014 | Celebration, Childhood, Community, Five Minute Friday, Gratitude, Joy
The snow piles on hoods of cars, front porch furniture, pots filled with dormant living things and the beginnings of crocuses. Writing tells me it’s worth it to remember these details and the way air smells different in the white, the way sounds echo like drums...
by Ashley Larkin | Jan 31, 2014 | Faith, Five Minute Friday, Gratitude, Hope, Joy, Sorrow
I wouldn’t say he swept in to save me. It felt more a remembering kind of seeing — a peace that started in the belly and moved to limbs, fingers, toes. Thirteen years old, sorrow filled, downright hating myself, knowing I couldn’t keep living like...
by Ashley Larkin | Dec 2, 2013 | Celebration, Childhood, Family, Giving, Gratitude, Joy, Love, Mothering, Parenting, Perspective
An idea board hangs on the door of the two- and three-year-old class at Lala’s preschool. At the top it reads, “What We Know About Clothes.” One line catches my attention: “Corduroy is kind of like crackers.” So yesterday morning...
by Ashley Larkin | Oct 8, 2013 | 31 Days 2013: Right Here, Family, Gratitude, Joy, Perspective
“Time is a relentless river. It rages on, a respecter of no one. And this, this is the only way to slow time: When I fully enter time’s swift current, enter into the current moment with the weight of all my attention, I slow the torrent with the weight of...
by Ashley Larkin | Jul 9, 2013 | Grace, Joy, Just Write, Perspective
From the sidewalk, she and her family approach the place where a chestnut brown llama in a tiny top hat and a cream llama in a bow tie stand. The younger girls and woman who walk next to the girl are smiling. The girl in the wheelchair with the fuchsia t-shirt, short...
by Ashley Larkin | May 17, 2013 | Childhood, Five Minute Friday, Joy, Mothering, Parenting
(Lala shaking the hand of a “Dr. Seuss tree” on her way home from preschool) Lala’s snuck another bowl of cereal, and I tell her it’s time to be done snacking — the smells of garlicky pizza from school now mingling with layers of...