Hi, I’m Ashley, 23, Akhil and Laura’s oldest daughter.
ALS smashed through the walls of my life like the Kool-Aid man right around the time I graduated high school. Just as I thought I was beginning to make sense of the big weird world.
There I was, 18 year old Ashley, staring at a pile of rubble, wondering, “What am I supposed to do now?”
So I ran away to YWAM.
I learned so much about faith while I was there: in LA, in Chile, in the Bay Area. I witnessed as God showed up in big ways and spoke loudly and lit up our paths right in the nick of time.
Then I came home.
And it all *vanished*.
I spent eight months building with bricks and marshmallow fluff. The rainy Pacific Northwest dissolved my “glue” in no time.
So I found a new lot to build on.
There were no materials there, so I made 3D art with gifts from strangers and a few of my old bricks and tried to call it shelter.
But I got tangled in weeds that grew from the seeds of unfiltered philosophical discussions in bars and in art school.
I spent a lot of time Where the Wild Things Are.
Eventually I realized it was time to go home.
Back to the lot with the pile of bricks, that stayed through the weather just fine.
So here I am.
Back where I started.
But with so much time wasted. So many useless regrets.
I feel the pressure to make it COUNT this time; to compensate for those years I could have spent doing “better” things, to make the right choices, to work work work work work.
I remember the Greatest Commands. And I’m WORKING on them.
I’m working on everything.
“Seems like you’re all work and no play,” a Lost Boy pointed out.
“If I don’t, who else will?” I cried.
“Don’t forget to enjoy the soup Jesus has waiting for you.”
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