Meet Ashley Look

We were lucky to catch up with Ashley Look recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I wish I could say my resilience was a habit of practice, or something other than being thrust into harsh and difficult circumstances. But in truth, it’s been a series of unfortunate events that’s required me show-up. I don’t think anyone chooses to walk towards hardship. In most instances, you don’t have a choice. You just do it out of necessity and somehow along the way it shapes you into the new person you become. Someone that has survived challenges, and carries it with them onto the next.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

First and foremost I am a chef in the Merchant Marine. It ‘s a career that many aren’t familiar with but being a Merchant Mariner affords me to travel the world about 6 months out of the year. Boat hitches typically look like 3 months of cooking aboard a research vessel, followed by 3 months off which means I have a significant amount of down time on land between cruises. This career has made it possible to focus on my craft of wooden spoon carving. Since I typically know my boat schedule in advance, I am able to plan classes and workshops when I’m stateside. I have several workshops happening this spring including a Ramen Spoon Carving Class at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens starting March 8th, 2025. I also have a bread baking and spoon carving class at the Academy at the Parc later that month and some possible fun in April when I collaborate with the Coral Springs Museum of Art. All of these venues feature me as a local artist and welcome me into their communities and make it possible for me to share my passions.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Figuring out “what’s next?” can be a real challenge when you lack clarity. I spent roughly 10 years stewing in the void of how to move forward. After almost a 7 year professional pause due to full-time family caregiving obligations, I was a bit lost on how to reenter the workforce. Things compounded with the Covid pandemic, forcing me to really examine my values. Witnessing up-close the decline and passing of loved ones forces you to evaluate your own life. I spent a lot of time carving spoons during those years. Carving became my therapy. It was like a form of meditation, allowing my head to rest under some of the cruelest of circumstances. I knew carving spoons wasn’t exactly a job pursuit but during that time I started to generate an inventory and selling spoons online. A mini business of sorts emerged and for the first time in years I saw the value of being a producer of my craft. Unfortunately, spoons were not enough and I needed to pursue a real and substantial income, especially after inheriting a debt burden when both my parents passed. But the void remained… After roughly a decade of not working, what could I do, and what did I want to do? How do I move forward?

The random job searches felt vacant. Nothing much was calling to me and I struggled to find a position descriptions that felt attractive. That nothingness opened my eyes to discovering my real values. The earnest desires that surrounded my day to day happiness weren’t found in salaries with job descriptions. They were discoveries I learned about myself during the hard nothingness of the years I spent as a caretaker. I realized I craved fresh air and sunlight; something that spoke to a sense of being alive with the awareness that time was passing. I also needed high quality food and movement in my day. Sourcing these things lead to a sense of satisfaction in that I could sleep easy at night knowing I made the most of the the day that just passed. I felt good if I had achieved those things even as the weeks continued to pass without work. This realization lead me back to my culinary roots of cooking on boats, a position I once did as an in-between type “job” but never considered a real career. An old employer got me back onboard, dabbling in trips here and there and as the Covid pandemic started to retreat, I found myself sailing more than ever. The ship had no shortage of fresh air and sunlight. It was blue water and the horizon as far as the eye could see. And the movement of the ship keep me on my toes as I explored my creativity with new recipes and a surplus of exotic fruits and vegetables. It was during this time that I became more aware of the Merchant Marine and that ships of all kinds, all over the world, have crew that must be fed. I started reaching out to other mariners in the industry, inquiring about the types of boats that might need a skilled cook. It turns out there are tons! And I mean TONS! It wasn’t long after that I was gainfully employed in a fulltime position, one that only required me for 6 months out of the year. It kind of blew my mind (and still does) to think I found everything I was looking for in a position without knowing what I was looking for. And to still have room to cultivate my spoon carving craft is almost too good to be true!

My advice for others that feel lost on their journey is to perhaps step away from the job boards and take some time to look more inward. Ask yourself questions about what you enjoy during your days and reflect on the things you need in order to rest comfortably when night falls. Too many of us are taught to chase the American Dream through financial means but ask yourself if there are other wants or desires that you could place higher in your priority list and see what arises when you put those things first. The discovery of self-knowledge can be far more rewarding than a paycheck so I would encourage anyone that reads this to keep digging and the clarity will come.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

I highly recommend the book Being Mortal; Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the end by Atul Gawande.

I’m not sure how I came to have this book in my position but I read it during my caregiving years and it made a huge impact in how I choose to pursue life. The book raises questions regarding quality of life verse longevity and the lengths we go to to hang onto time. Its written by a doctor addressing his father’s final days the schism between the goal of medicine, to do by any means possible, to prolong time, even at the hands of pain and suffering.

This book shaped a vision for end of life care for both my parents. They each suffered from Alzheimer’s and Dementia and caring for them alongside each other was incredibly challenging. Aging isn’t very kind and that coupled with memory loss made “time” both a gift and an enemy. I spent years in relative isolation as neither could be left alone. Nor were they able to communicate well making socialization all the more difficult. The day in day out intensity of their struggles provided a glimpse of my own possible future which parlayed a million concerns for how I might live the rest of my life. Gawande’s book helped highlight how the simplest of pleasures make a life worth living. The stories he shared reminded me that sometimes a little sunshine and a cup of coffee is all I need to have a good day. He also emphasizes how precious our time is and the importance of doing the things we love and ensuring those we love know how deeply we care for them.

I felt very attached to my spoons from those early days. Each carving was emotional and healing at the same time. I passed a painful amount of time whittling away slivers of wood while digesting existential questions about what to do when caregiving was no longer at the center of my identity. How do I move forward? Who am I now? What do I enjoy when I’ve lost myself to a sea of sorrow? Gawande’s book can help you answer that. He helped me remember that I am more than anything I do. I am what I love, and I still believe that!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lookashley.com
• Instagram: ashleylook1
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/ashley.look.5

Image Credits

Close-up carving photo- Credit: Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens