by Ashley Larkin | Nov 10, 2015 | Perspective, Trust
The screen door doesn’t fit in its casing when it swells with November rain, so it slacks open. Every minute, every thirty seconds, a change in air catches the door, and it taps. Wooden door against porch railing. Tap. Tap-tap. Tap. Normally, repetitious sounds...
by Ashley Larkin | Oct 24, 2014 | Five Minute Friday, Risk-taking, Trust, Truth-telling
I dared named Shame this week. Looked her right in accusing, bloodshot eyeballs and told her to get out of my car, my bed. My muscles recognized her first, that old rush and dull ache of inadequacy, vague regret. I told her she wasn’t welcome anymore, that she...
by Ashley Larkin | Aug 1, 2014 | Faith, Five Minute Friday, Hope, Open endings, Risk-taking, Surrender, Trust, Truth-telling
The sky flashes, light unzipping across the dawning summer morning. It is surprising in these parts, a morning storm without rain, and the unseen bolt is a beginning that spreads fingers across earthly skies. She sits across from this new face at the table, and...
by Ashley Larkin | Jul 30, 2014 | Joy, Risk-taking, Surrender, Trust
I mix a splash of spruce green acrylic paint with the chartreuse, let my paintbrush pick up and lay down the two colors unevenly. I do not know what will appear before me when I do. I hold one of the raw wooden-handled brushes that sit in the jar on the shelf between...
by Ashley Larkin | Jul 15, 2014 | Fear, One Word: Seek, Risk-taking, Trust, Truth-telling
Everywhere I look and in every word I read, I hear, Brave. Brave. Be brave. _____ We welcome in this dear girl, knocked around and emotionally roughed up by peers this school year, and she brings her self, an intact smile and quirky sense of humor as if she is not...
by Ashley Larkin | Jul 4, 2014 | Fear, Five Minute Friday, Mothering, Surrender, Trust, Truth-telling
I hardly recognize how often I do it. Hold my breath, wait for the feeling of fear to pass, worry to skitter through, even a feeling to take hold. Just how much of my day goes by, I wonder, pushing through to the next thing without expelling waiting air from my lungs?...