The Ask

A good friend of mine describes to me, over cookies and tea, a fundraising event she recently attended. "It was a worthy cause, really worthy", she says. "They need the money and its all for the greater good. They had a great pitch, but there wasn't any ask." The Ask, I ask? "You know", she says, "when you finally get down to the part where you ask for what you really want. You have to ask. Its that simple. No ask", she said, "no get."
I thought about this all afternoon, and into the evening when I usually go around and light the candles in the altars and shrines around the house.
For months I eyes this little wooden treehouse on the toyshelf in my student Carla's house. I went over once a week for an hour of Pilates instruction and conversation. I secretly coveted it , I fetishized it. I asked where she got it, casually, so she wouldn't notice how much I lusted for it. But I could not come up with one on my own. It had vaporized from the world of wooden toys. I knew how lovely it would be for a shrine, snugging perfectly into the shelf next to my mantle. A treehouse- my dream of a space in the air, with the birds and the leaves.
Then one day, Carla announced with a dismissive gesture of her hand, she was having a comprehensive toy purge. "All this junk", she said, looking at the shelf. I panicked, "Can I have the treehouse?"
She looked at me oddly, "Of course, here take it, I never knew you wanted it" (Had she been blind?)
Then, to make my heart sing, she added. "Let me find the sleeping bags and the boat that goes with it for you."
And it only seemed right that I all I had to do was ask for the treehouse and it was given with a straightforward and easy kindness. The simple kindness that comes from a loving heart.
So here it is, with stones from The Cape of Good Hope and Big Sur, beach glass, flowers and candles and origami animals and an everchanging landscape of all the treasures I find and cherish.
And all I had to do was ask.

Comments

[jen lemen]

oh, i love this post! the ask is everything--yes, yes, yes! can't wait to think up something to ask now that you reminded me. :)