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 | Mar 29, 2014 | Amusings, Family, Joy, Love, Marriage, Mothering, Perspective, Trust
1. Roller skating makes me feel crazy alive. I can roll and roll and roll around a circle (oval?) with my limited skill in the midst of some of my favorite people and a man flourishing a white towel with every epic twirl, and never tire. I cannot explain why...
by Ashley Larkin | Dec 10, 2013 | Biblical tales, Celebration, Childhood, Faith, Family, Just Write, Mothering, Parenting
The tree shines so brightly this year. It’s amazing what 800 white bulbs can do to an evergreen. (I’ve been known to overdo the lights a smidge in the past.) Much fills our moments, hours and weeks during December, but, as my sister Lizzy and I talked...
by Ashley Larkin | Dec 4, 2013 | Community, Giving, Grace, Gratitude, Just Write, Mothering, Open endings, Parenting
I try to imagine her expression as she presses black and red markers to the paper plate. Does a faint smile turn up the corners of her mouth as she writes thanks? Does a worry line run deep between her eyebrows? Is her house filled by the roars of boys or hollers of...
by Ashley Larkin | Sep 9, 2013 | Childhood, Faith, Family, Favorite posts, Fear, Perspective, Surrender
My mother helped make me an artist because she taught me to see as one struck by wonder. Through her eyes, I first treasured thistle’s down and oak’s curved limb, leaf’s shadow and bird’s wing, the shapes of clouds and the kind of smiles made only with eyes. My mother...
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