Ashworth Alcove

She jotted down something on a post-it with her pink pen. Then she reached across the air that separated us and stuck the little paper on my notebook. It had the dates of two different weekends scrawled across it and that was it. Puzzled, I looked to her for an explanation. "Pick one," she said. "Pick when you'd like to go stay at the cabin." You see, this person's family has a cabin right on the lake. I had been extra stressed and she happens to be extra kind. That person is a coworker - my boss, to be exact. Sometimes in life we find ourselves in the company of kind people who recognize when your soul needs some nourishment.

Back in December I entered an essay contest. The prize - A 42 acre farm in Tennesssee. In my hometown, no less. The winner would be contacted on Christmas Eve. I went over the scenario in my head... What receiving that call on Christmas Eve would feel like. I longed for it. Unfortunately, per the contest rules, they did not receive enough entries. They refunded the entry fees and now I'm left with this non-winning essay. This was the first essay I had written in a few years. It was a challenging one, because the stakes were high. Nothing came of it, but even so, I am glad I took the time to write it. Fun fact: Contest rules stated there was 500 word maximum. My word count? 500. Nurturing the Flame     Every individual has something special that brings him or her joy. It is a flame within us. It is heart-warming and nourishes our soul. My flame is Tennessee. I have a yearning that is quenched only by the simple wonderments of a country life there. As a child ...

This post was started in November, so now it's more like 2.65 or something. You weigh 33 lbs and stand 38" tall. You're in 3T-4T clothing and size 8 shoe.  You are completely potty-trained. Honestly, the process was easy as pie. You know all the colors, can sing the full ABC's, and count to 20, though you often skip 10. You can point out all the shapes, even a hexagon. You can also identify your numbers. You go to school three days a week. Your teachers tell me you have two good friends there, Aubrey and Emma. Aside from those two, you spend more time interacting with the adults than the other children. Fox goes with you every day. When I pick you up and ask what you did that day you always say, "I pwayed wif my fwiends!" You love school buses and get very excited when we see one. We always look for them while in the car. You also like to tell me where to go while driving. You'll point and say, "Dis way!" You have full co...

What are five passions you have? 1. Violet - My passion, my best buddy, my inspiration, my favorite person of all time, the coolest being in the history and future of the known and unknown. Everything good and right in my world. 2. Family - The most important thing I have in this life is the people who are in it. These people give me love, support, and great comfort. Living far away makes seeing them extra special and makes missing them very easy. 3. Nature - Gazing at Mt. Rainier towering over this land is humbling and makes me feel like a part of something larger. The changing of seasons stirs my soul, especially the transition into fall. Being in the woods activates some primitive intuition within me. Our ancestors worshiped nature, and yet humankind is now completely disconnected from all of it, from this planet we live on. The loss of being grounded is a true loss for humankind. 4. By-gones - Genealogy, antiques, old crafts and skills our great-grandfathers knew, old reci...

Every so often I find myself slipping down into my muddy hole. I just can't get any traction to climb back up. Some days I'll give a weak try, only for my foot to slip. I just slide right back down into the muddy hole I know well. So most days I don't even bother trying to get out. I just get comfortable there in the hole, which is detrimental on many levels. The muddy hole is depression. Famously, Winston Churchill referred to his depression as “the black dog.” Sitting on his lap, it haunted him. It's the perfect metaphor. However, I actually have a real life black dog so that one doesn't work as well for me. My relationship with this foe began with anxiety. Over time it morphed. I was the cocoon - a vessel for anxiety to live within. Within the cocoon existed the perfect environment for the anxiety to transform. It hibernated, then contorted itself just before emerging as depression. I say emerged because the depression transcends beyond me. The depression i...

People talk about the terrible twos as if it's a curse a witch foredoomed on your family. While I admit there are moments it seems Violet is one meltdown away from spontaneously combusting, having a two year old is pretty fun. (Famous last words...) It's difficult to grasp how much she has changed over the course of a few months. She says new things every day and is always trying to do grown up things like wipe down the dinner table. Right now she says, "Das funny!" a lot. The great thing is, she actually understands the concept of humor and laughs when things really are funny. She has a great sense of humor and Ben is proud. If you're trying to get her to do something she doesn't want to do, may luck be with you. If she's playing or lounging on the couch and you attempt to coax her away to do something outside of her plans she handles it with avoiding eye contact and saying, "Otay, byyye." She calls my coffee  "mo...

Oregon Zoo: The first thing we did while in Portland was visit the zoo. It was one of the best zoos I've been to. There were giraffes, elephants, tigers, cougars, a polar bear, and so many more. Of all these amazing creatures, Violet's favorite animal at the zoo was the ducks. She loved them so much that we visited them more than once. Second on Violet's list went to a large turtle that we could watch under the water. And third was the vultures. Yep, the vultures. While she liked the "moan-keys" and "effunts" and "diraffes"... they just don't live up to those vultures. The only thing Violet didn't jive with was a "nake" a volunteer was handling with the opportunity to touch it. There was also a strange large swimming lizard that straight up alarmed her. I don't blame her. Swimming two foot lizards give me the heebie-jeebies as well. That guy was weird. Portland Rose Garden: T...