This time last year, I was standing outside my apartment building looking in; a woman with few possessions but more hope than she usually musters. As I write this, I can see the artwork I bought in town, the owl cookie jar I bought at a North Carolina antique store, so many plants, the sign in my mom’s handwriting gifted to me by the kindest person I know and the detritus of my existence; a few books, a random charger, sunglasses, junk mail I have yet to throw out. A life.
The two “biggest” (positive) influences on my life were traveling across the country to Portland, Oregon, and Asheville, NC and I remember my lower-self kicking its feet with both experiences. “This is uncomfortable. This isn’t what you know. Why is there a man resembling white-Jesus tripping on lsd at a public art gallery? This…is…weird. WAIT. I’m weird!” And suddenly, it felt more like home than “home” ever felt. The best advice I ever received in life was to “bring Asheville with you, every where you go…” Every step has become home. And I’m thankful to read that you have absorbed the unknown and turned it into home. So consider this my gift of a “doormat” for you that reads, “Welcome home.”
The two “biggest” (positive) influences on my life were traveling across the country to Portland, Oregon, and Asheville, NC and I remember my lower-self kicking its feet with both experiences. “This is uncomfortable. This isn’t what you know. Why is there a man resembling white-Jesus tripping on lsd at a public art gallery? This…is…weird. WAIT. I’m weird!” And suddenly, it felt more like home than “home” ever felt. The best advice I ever received in life was to “bring Asheville with you, every where you go…” Every step has become home. And I’m thankful to read that you have absorbed the unknown and turned it into home. So consider this my gift of a “doormat” for you that reads, “Welcome home.”