When I read the work of other writers, it’s like I am receiving a word transfusion. Their creativity getting shot straight into my veins giving my own life again. – Ash
I love experiencing something that I forgot I missed. Like the smell of the ocean, the call of seabirds, and standing in the picking rain while I drift. I call them triggers when they happen. Triggers that I’m not living my life the way I was meant to. Reminders that there are pieces of me that need replenishing. – Ash
today, the air was different I paid attention to the seabirds watched the tide go all the way out to my left, a boat hummed away from the harbour to my right, lost sheep chew green grass into yellow a car passes by and the people wave while Jack the black cat sits still on a picket fence and Patti, the old neighbour strokes the last drop of paint …against his saltbox home I am shaken by something I can’t understand an algorithm of existing in a moment of my life seeing clear because that life stopped me in my tracks pushed my breath straight to my lungs grew my heart for the love of living filled me with the longing for more I know now that there is something more to every day my heart was smothered and my soul blinded until my spirit had enough and awakened
We should not worry about how long we will live? But, rather, how do we live? Quantity of life is a one-time blessing. It’s the quality of life that provides forever bliss. – Ash
When I was a young boy, my grandmother would always tell me that I was bound for something great. Glimpses of me behind a desk somewhere with a pen and paper. No more substance than that. Just that nothing else would fit what mould she had envisioned for me. She would tell me this with a smile and pride in her voice. It would instantly make me smile too. But, for years I wondered what that meant. Now, as a published poet and six years deep into my blog, Earth to Ash, amongst creating every single chance I get, this is what she had seen. This is what she knew was coming for me. A future with writing. Sharing my thoughts, feelings, and emotion to the world around me. Like I have said from the start. I don’t consider myself to be a great writer, but I am enjoying the journey of someday becoming one. And when I reach that goal, it will forever be because of Theresa Douglas. Nan/Mom, if only you could read those words you seeded inside this soul of mine that writes to connect forever with yours and the world can take a peek too. – Ash