Trolling for Truth

"A writer's knowledge of himself, realistic and unromantic, is like a store of energy on which he must draw for a lifetime."  

- Graham Greene

What are central questions to living as a human doing?

Consider:

Lovers' misunderstandings

Quarrels between friends

Family feuds

Self-sabotage

Tests of courage

Defeat and redemption

Pleasures expressed and thwarted

What material of your life has baffled you?  What experiences won't digest and go away? What treasured moments do you value? What do you know about yourself in a way that is realistic and unromantic?  Test them for meaning.

Creative Write:  Write about turns in life's road: u-turns, left turns, right turns, changing vehicles.

Imagine driving a different vehicle and an alternate way to go.

Timeout for FUN

Don't let the chaos of the Holiday season cause distress and down time in your writing journey.  Incorporate surprise, laughter, and delight into your next two days of writing and see what it does for your attitude toward life.

Take time off from your usual worrying or trying so hard to please everyone else.  Make a list of the five biggest worries on the left side of a sheet of paper.  Opposite each worry write why they would 

never-in-this-world happen.  You'll discover you worry using creative improbabilities not creative reality.

Write a Dear Child of Me letter.  What would you like to do that's really fun, daring or outright wild? As you write, try to remember your fearless self.

Take a timeout and write yourself into Fun.

You to You

It's a mad rush this Holiday season.  Take a breath and focus on YOU.

Consider how you treat yourself.  When you become one hundred percent responsible and care for yourself, you will have the ability to become one hundred percent responsible in celebration of another person.

A relationship between two individuals who are each one hundred percent responsible for their lives provides true reciprocity.  Anything else engages entanglement.

Celebrate and Love yourself.  Invite yourself to tea.  Enjoy your own company.  Expore your heart.  Cuddle yourself.  Be grateful for all your accomplishments.  Don't judge yourself for one day.  Sing outside the shower.

Creative Write: Explore how your mind moves in writing. Notice what you feel.  How does writing change your mood?  Write about altering one habit that gets in the way of the loving you.

two days

"The two most important days of your life are the day you are born, and the day you find out why." -Mark Twain


Do a freewrite today about your first memory of life.  Discover additional details as you write.  


How are you doing in the "finding out why" area?


Write about the thrill of life!

A Gift of the Present Moment

Do you spend a lot of time looking in the rear view mirror?  In anticipation of the new year, promise yourself to use your time in present moments of movement.

Enjoy the present as a gift and keep your eyes ready for amazement.  Let your ears take in all life's music.
Taste the breeze as it arrives.  Notice the flavors of color. Breathe in the scents of magic around you.

Then write your present chapter!

Habit Tracking

Individuals and their traits travel through us.  From Childhood onward, many of our behaviors become composites of watching and emulating others.  Preferences may arise from both positive and negative experiences that build character and personality.

During the day keep track of behaviors you attribute to influence from family members or friends.  Who taught you to roll socks into a ball or fold them over together to place in the sock drawer?  Did someone suggest you try catsup or vinegar on French fries?  Did a sibling throw the baseball and football with you and show you form?  Did you ever skip a stone on a lake?  Who taught you to tie shoelaces and how do you?  Who dared you to become courageous?

Does science appeal after watching the celery experiment revealing capillary action with blue ink that traveled up into the leaves?  Do you like jelly with scrambled eggs because your father ate it?  Does mac and cheese not fit into the favorite foods category because you had to eat it when recovering from an illness?  Who read your first book to you or revealed the alphabet?  Do you count on your fingers?

Notice how you respond during the day.  Do you hear yourself say something a friend always repeated?  Do your slang words retreat many decades and you still say, "Cool" or "right on"?

Creative write:  After you complete your day's habit tracking, write about your impressions.

Writing About Gifts

The way we give and receive gifts indicates a great deal about ourselves. It takes time, thoughtfulness, and creativity to select a present for someone we care about. Often the present becomes a symbol of friendship or involves an item to fill a specific need.

On other occasions, the gift selection feels mandatory and takes less effort.  The gift of our presence for someone in need also requires thought and skill.

Self-awarensss and empathy run through the process.

Write about gift giving and receiving.  Begin with a present you did not appreciate at first.  Why did it gain in meaning?  Or did it represent something you're still attempting to resolve?

Seeking Simplicity

A woman who called herself Peace Pilgrim began a walk across America in the 1950s.  She had reduced her possessions to what she believed necessary and essential.  Her clothes and a few items in her pockets served her.  Living at the need rather than want level made her feel liberated and empowered. She said, "a persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well-being that places harmony in one's life."

Seek simplicity for yourself by writing responses and see where they take you:

How might you return to simplicity?  In what ways will it assist with contentment?

On what scale do you rank possessions and endless striving?  How necessary are these aspects of your life?

Does technology add to or reduce complexity in your life?

What would you do to reduce daily clutter in physical items and mental issues?

Describe emotional crutches that provide illlusions of security?

Which rituals do you use to start the day?

In what ways do you silence sensory overload daily?



During the hectic Holiday season, if you take time to write about seeking simplicity, does an improvement plan appear?

Natural Encounters

"Hold out your hands to feel the luxury of the sunbeams."  - Helen Keller

Each day you breathe in and out about five hundred cubic feet of air without even noticing.  Daily the sun rises and sets and weather patterns abound.  Seasons move on and constellations revolve around the sky. Tides ebb and flow.

Nature can entertain, stimulate and enlighten.  The doors and windows of wonder open to you daily.

What will you notice today?

Write about a moment when you had an encounter with nature.