Last week's phone conversation with dear friend Ashley Bryan ended with an invitation to come, via the mail boat, to "his" island next year for his 95th birthday. His island is Isleford, ME, a small hamlet, on Little Cranberry Isle off the coast of Northeast Harbor, Acadia National Park)
His invitation was delivered with the "Lord willing" caveat."
Having known Ashley for 28 years, I have seen first hand how he treasures his moments. He never seems in a hurry. He always has time to talk with a friend. He says its because he lives on island time---which always has enough minutes in each day for what's really important---relationships.
But....in his "spare time" he writes and illustrates books. Freedom over Me, his most recently published work, (2016) won Newbery honor for Children's Literature, presented in June at ALA in Chicago. He also won the Coretta Scott King honor for both auth and illustrator of the same book. Quite a year!!
Dec. 2017, Ashley's work will be included in Our Story Begins and next spring his illustrations of Nikki Giovanni's, I am Loved, will be published. Plus, another one is in the works for 2019 publication---"Lord willing."
Ashley's studio clock reflects his comfort with island time---he gets up when he awakens, eats when he's hungry, paints outside when it's sunny, gathers sea glass for stained glass windows, creates puppets from the day's island "finds" and always has time for friends! (And everyone is his friend,)
Come now, you who say, 'Today of tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'---yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.' (James 4:13-15)
Ashley believes that his time on earth is in the Lord's hands---not in a morbid or fearful way, but in a God honoring way!
Ashley Bryan chooses "island time" everyday----Lord willing!
