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Linnea Ashley on October 17th, 2010

I wanted it to be worthy of him. As if anything would have been worthy of him. As if anything could say to the world, this was my friend. Magnificent. Brilliant. Generous. I wanted it to be worthy of him and found myself angered when the cell phones rang during the service, when the camera […]

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Linnea Ashley on September 15th, 2010

September 15, 2010 Iganga Town, Uganda (Mum’s resort) The water steamed immediately. On the wood paneled walls, against the rocks and the metal pipe pushing out the wood burned heat. We set our vinyl covered cushions on the slatted bench and chatted quietly, sweat pooling on my upper lip, the center of his chest. Just […]

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Linnea Ashley on August 31st, 2010

Iganga Town, Uganda August 31, 2010 There are some americanism, my inner mzungo so to speak, that I would presume are rigid and inflexible. I’d be wrong but I sometimes argue with myself that it is true. Personal space is one of those things. From my history I know that I can work through the […]

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Linnea Ashley on December 18th, 2009

My father always said marriage was the toughest job you’ll ever love. Yeah he borrowed that line from peace corps but that doesn’t make it any less true. The idea that two people – fully formed – come together to make a single life is intense. the marriage itself is fired in work but the […]

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Linnea Ashley on March 3rd, 2009

In the darkened theatre, my breath melded into the breathing of hundreds, all waiting for something magnificent, waiting to be moved. It is a collective inhalation of expectation while the curtain rises. They stand in their many poses, muscles tight in anticipation. Waiting to move…waiting to move the audience. This was my first Alvin Ailey […]

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Linnea Ashley on December 5th, 2008

the nile, in her simplicity, is mild mannered. but it is in context…of how long…at points- how deep…how sustaining she is…that boggles. and it was with many eyes that i absorbed the nile on the five day cruise. from the top of the high dam…looking south side where the water has collected making lake nasser […]

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Linnea Ashley on November 5th, 2008

“you’ll only know a world where this is possible,” I whispered to my niece. Less than a year old, she bounced and drooled on my lap as her mother screamed with joy in the background. Obama is president. For a moment my eyes stung with tears. But I smiled. Listening to him calmly and humbly […]

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Linnea Ashley on August 28th, 2008

it doesn’t go away…it doesn’t fade…it doesn’t transform into some lesser thing. love remains…after misunderstandings and missed opportunities – beyond cultural borders and emotional boundaries…love remains. now what’s to be done with it once its time has passed – its potential for taking center stage quietly overlooked or taken for granted? we bury. we layer. […]

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Linnea Ashley on May 28th, 2008

in previous iterations of myself i was a poet. if not poet – no less than a writer. the older i get the farther away it seems. just barely beyond my grasp. as far away as it feels to me it is the picture of me that some people carry. not a hairstyle, not a […]

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