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ashley

@leymingot

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meticulous, yet widely and wildly imprecise

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33 is a luscious number.
There’s romance here: more capacity to be myself, I think.
Shapeshifting, taking shape.
Losing my grip explaining what I really mean but still trying.

Coming back home from Sicily in August was hard. I feel a deep sense of longing returning home from trips like these. I have to make a choice: will I blend back into an unsatisfying normal? It’s like the depth of brown in my skin fades and my ability to construct new lives is impaired lol. In the small window before I returned to work, my dear friend offered me an opportunity to move out of state temporarily for a new job. I didn’t take it seriously at first. I never worked in the field before, for one, and two, putting in my two weeks after a 2.5-week vacation felt too crazy. At the same time, becoming complacent with an uninspired life felt like too big of a sacrifice. Anybody else feel like your non-negotiables screech differently in your 30s?!

I dreamt up a workplace that would make me feel like I think good lol. I been imagining it for years.
I’ve been wanting to think through things with people for a long time.
I lived this gift for my birthday this year: people listening to me. A hive mind, if you will.
While peculiar, it’s been confirmed as a deep need lol.
Field directing, strategizing, making pieces fit together, listening, being heard, speaking up, crying because it consumes you, too, and it’s all a gift.
Sicily never left me- I’m staying in a High Victorian Italianate historic home in VA with 12 ft ceilings where I see gorgeous molding on the walls while I’m on the bowl 🥹
My 33 wish-revelation is the magic of wait. I instinctively reject the unknown, whole time it’s a gift, and the gift WANTS ME to receive it. That’s romantic as fuck to me and that’s some shit I want to build more capacity to hold. My thirty free is chatty, humiliating, form-fitting, funky, full-bodied, curious, emollient, bold, and very much mine I suppose.
Mashallah ✨ by @leymingot

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24 days ago

mount Etna erupted and spewed lava for days while i was on the island. i was lucky enough to have my flight cancelled and my stay extended because of it. this was week two (plus another half) of my trip to sicily. physically and emotionally intense. marietou’s style feels volcanic to me and fit the scene. to witness her dynamism and command of her body and space- which feels so both masculine and feminine that the binary doesn’t hold, is an honor. cue the gelato truck at 230 sharp. play, wonderment baked into homecomings and breakthroughs. traveling at this epoch, for me, asks me who will i be and fuck, i hadn’t realized i could give a new answer let alone be asked anew. i’m amazed by God’s patience and grace and understanding of how hard it is for me to change, for supporting my becoming still, and for choosing not to overlook the desires i fear to name. for all these things and their tendernesses and disruptions, I give thanks 🤲🏾 by @leymingot

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2 months ago

lodging romances 🐚 by @leymingot

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2 months ago

these sites of beauty made me think about tears and sweat, endless carvings of stone and strokes of brush.
A lifetime painting a ceiling or a holy book’s characters.
I reimagine luxury as time taken.
Time-taking as devotional.
Loving a thing so much you exchange time to create it.
And so the doing becomes worship.
Sweat bulbs become offerings and the sea. by @leymingot

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2 months ago

continuiamo, by @leymingot

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2 months ago

if you’re lucky, you come to terms with your dreams. by @leymingot

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3 months ago

taken in Ragusa, Italy by @leymingot

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3 months ago

On Monday, I’ll return my iPhone XR to Verizon. Last month, while activating my new phone at the Verizon store, the sales lady asked me if I wanted to transfer everything, and I said no. It seemed uncommon and as I prepare to wipe out my old phone, I understand why. I’ll have all my photos. They’ll be stored on an external hard drive that I don’t always know where to find, but I have to tap the ‘Erase All Content,’ which happens to be everything I didn’t want to lose in screenshots: the art, the shit people had the nerve to text, the texts I savored, the pathologizing quotes, the funnies, the recipes that never made the pan, the books I may never read, the hair inspo I rocked and the fits I didn’t, the events i never went to, and the photos: the selfies in perfect lighting and the many more that are horrid, the yard cat as a kitten before he became a full grown beggar and bestie, the teeny rubber plant that will soon hit the ceiling, the plants that didn’t make it, and tender moments I may eventually forget of people on paths that have diverged from mine. Maybe it’s the rain or the Canadian smoke that’s made it’s way in or the 30 day deadline, but i’m sentimental about not carrying it all with me all the time, the sense of self I enjoyed knowing it has witnessed me in many stages, and that my new phone feels like a stranger because it knows so little about me by @leymingot

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3 months ago

winter buns are still on the shelf by @leymingot

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3 months ago

In preparing to lay some thoughts down in your honor, I give thanks for all there is to remember, for everything the hard drives won’t forget. As I go through these photos and videos, I remember it was with you, Gabby, that I would answer one of the first calls in my head that yearned for ‘more dance.’ In 2019. A call that, mind you, continues to pop up and seduce me in a new voice lol! We answered that call side by side at the audition for Fanike African Dance Troupe! We sure did! We joined the company, one of my first dance homes, traveled to rehearsals, danced from the Weeksville lawn to Bam Steps and back across all the floors together. You really got it: The pulse of dance amidst our people was irresistible to you, too. You always honored the people who recognized the love and life in you by name. And yeah, it’s been really hard thinking about where Gabby aka Gabrielle Idowhatiwant Williams (AŚEEE) aka @getitgirlyoubestagetitgirl (PERIODT!!!!) ..where does your humor and wit and unique thoughtfulness go and when? where? how will your deep love for your people resurface? And when I think, ‘and what about the call for ‘more dance?’ I remember that what we yearned for, You’ve become! and All praises to the Most High for your life and the dreams you dreamed, Endless love to Nala and Nkosi and all your beloveds and may you REST in such a DIVINE FORM. We love you! by @leymingot

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4 months ago

DanceAfrica 2026 was a fkn waveeeeeee 🐠 God really snapped with Africa frrrrrrrr 😭 by @leymingot

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5 months ago

📍DanceAfrica26 🤲🏾 by @leymingot

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5 months ago