dailyprompt

  • The Past is Past

    The Past is Past

    Even if I could go back, I wouldn’t. There have been many good years of my life that I look back on fondly. And there have been many difficult years of my life, that might have turned out differently if I knew then what I know now. Still, I wouldn’t change anything if I could.

    Read more →

  • Nameless: Names and Shifting Identities

    Sometimes I am Ashley, and Sometimes Mae. I am one, I am none, I am both. My identity is complex and ever shifting with the seasons. Sometimes I am “Ashley”- the gifted middle child who overcame an unstable upbringing to become a successful business woman. Sometimes I am “Mae”- the impulsive creative with a Renaissance

    Read more →

  • Broken Pinky promise: how a broken finger ended a bad relationship for good.

    I broke my pinky finger once. I didn’t break the bone, but I tore a ligament pretty badly which required me to wear a splint on for a few weeks. It happened when I was back in college, working full time as a night-shift janitor. I was sleep deprived, and distracted because my on-again-off-again boyfriend

    Read more →

  • Toxic Productivity: What is productivity anyway?

    Sometimes I find myself thinking “I should be working” in the middle of work. I’ll be in the middle of research, or designing a newsletter for a client when the thought strikes. Logically, I understand that I am working but it’s as if my inherited Puritan work ethic refuses to acknowledge anything enjoyable as being

    Read more →

  • Wind

    Wind

    I’ve always loved the wind. I love hearing it howl through the chimney like a restless spirit and tickle wind chimes like a fairy. I love watching it shake tree branches, and make leaves dance across the street. I love feeling it cool my skin on hot summer days, and steel my breath away in

    Read more →

  • Life Experience and Quiet Lessons: do trials really make you stronger?

    I always hated when people told me that adversity would make me stronger. I tried to believe it at first- that all the bad things that happened to me in my childhood and early adult years would make me a better person but it didn’t. A childhood full of poverty, abuse, and constant uprooting didn’t

    Read more →

  • 15 Minutes with myself: what I would tell my teenage self

    There’s a Book Series I really Enjoy called “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” This modern urban fantasy is about a tiny cafe in Japan with the unique ability to send a drinker back to the past for a short period of time- the length of time it takes for a cup of coffee to get

    Read more →

  • Life Budgeting: how I approach spending

    My budgeting strategy is financial anxiety. The shadow of childhood poverty never truly goes away. It continues to follow you for the rest of your life, rearing it’s ugly head in unexpected ways. Even now, I make more money than I ever have in my life, and I still save pennies and continuously track my

    Read more →

  • The City of My Dreams: a literal dream vacation

    I once had a dream that all my friends went to Montreal. I don’t know what brought on this dream, because I’ve never thought about the cit before, but now I think about it often. In my dream, it looked like a fantastic spot for a Girls’ Trip. It was late spring or early summer, judging

    Read more →

  • Taking the Stage: reflections on public speaking

    If there is one thing I can thank my LDS upbringing for, it’s my public speaking ability. From a young age, Mormon children practice public speaking in the form of prayer, “talks”, testimony, and lessons. By the time a Mormon reaches adulthood, they will have been had countless opportunities to speak, or sing, in front

    Read more →