Healing. Prompt #565

  • Healing. Prompt #565

    Write about a time you experienced a healing—physically, spiritually, or emotionally.

    Or, if you are in the process of pursuing healing . . . write about what you are doing.

    Or, what healing methods do you want to pursue?

    Let me count the ways . . .

    Aromatherapy, autogenic relaxation, art, biofeedback, deep breathing, exercise, Feldenkrais, guided imagery, hydrotherapy massage, meditation, music, prayer, progressive muscle relaxation, qi gong, tai chi, tapping, visualization, yoga.

    There are a number of resources listed in The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing, especially ideas about how to write about difficult events without adding trauma. Available at Amazon, print ($15) and ebook ($3.49).

    Marlene C

  • A place you have visited. Prompt #564

    Sit back. Get comfortable and relaxed in your chair. Think about a place you have visited.

    It doesn’t matter where. It could be the downtown area in your city. It could be the city where you were born. Could be a vacation.

    Take a few minutes to scroll through your mind and choose a place you have visited.

    Let your mind drift back to your visit or time you spent at this location.

    If you are working on fiction, how would one of your characters respond to the prompts below.

    Prompt #1: What is the first picture, or scene, that appears?

    Prompt #2:  I can still hear . . .

    Prompt #3: I can smell . . .

    Prompt #4: This place is important to me because . . .

    Prompt #5: I wish I could . . .

    Marlene C

  • Increscent Moon

    Increscent Moon

    By Su Shafer

    Starless, Starless Night

    I gaze up, surprised to see

    The moon looking down

    Not at me, she is watching

    Something far over the horizon,

    Her face radiant with golden pleasure.

    Maybe she is looking at tomorrow,

    The baby day, still pink and new,

    Gently urging it forward as it crawls along

    dragging its giant blanket of light behind it.

    Her smile is serene and comforts me,

    Standing alone in the night,

    The quiet space between today and tomorrow.

    I feel oddly hopeful as I go back inside.

    If the moon is beaming,

    Tomorrow must be a better day.

    Su Shafer is a creative writer and fledgling poet who lives in the Pacific Northwest, where flannel shirts are acceptable as formal wear and strong coffee is a way of life. There, in a small Baba Yaga house perched near the entrance to The Hidden Forest, odd characters are brewing with the morning cup, and a strange new world is beginning to take shape . . .

    Marlene C

  • Shoes . . . Prompt #363

    Write about shoes.

    Your shoes, a baby’s shoes, or a grandmother’s slippers.

    A pair of shoes hanging by the laces on a high wire.

    A favorite pair of hiking boots.

    Ballet shoes.

    Sandals worn on vacation.

    Shoes.

    Marlene C

  • Perseverance . . . Prompt #562

    Today’s prompt is inspired from the Perseverance Rover landing on Mars.

    What do you think about the Mars landing?

    Is this as impactful as man’s first walk on the moon?

    OR:

    Where were you on July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin landed on the moon?

    OR: Write about perseverance.

    About the parachute that helped land Perseverance:

    The parachute that helped NASA’s Perseverance rover land on Mars unfurled to reveal a seemingly random pattern of colors in video clips of the rover’s landing. NASA officials said it contained a hidden message written in binary computer code. The red and white pattern spelled out “Dare Mighty Things” in concentric rings. The saying is the Perseverance team’s motto, and it is also emblazoned on the walls of Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion. “The Verge”

    Marlene C

  • If you knew . . . Prompt #561

    If you knew then what you know now, what would you do differently?

    Marlene C

    ,

  • Finding Peace

    Finding Peace

    By DS Briggs

    When in Switzerland I wandered into a large ornate cathedral. The choir was singing. The voices soared with the organist’s notes. I didn’t understand the language but sitting in the back pew I felt entranced and relaxed. 

    I live with a lot of silence within my home. I don’t usually have the radio, tv or music as background. I don’t know why. Habit? Or just a need to keep calm.

    I have experienced calmness in walking outdoors.  I was on the dog path, walking Boo. I heard a splash in the creek. I saw a pair of ducks swimming, dipping and eating with their bottoms-up.  I took time to watch how the sunlight dappled the creek and how the brilliant red-leafed tree stood out from the myriad of greens and browns. I just stood, leash in hand, and looked. I enjoyed the calm while I watched the ripples of circles the ducks made. It was a great moment to just be in the now.

    Other examples of this quiet-calm have been in walking with large, huge trees. I first noticed my heart quieting and healing when I camped in Sequoia National Park. Closer to home I found time in Armstrong Redwoods provided similar feelings to Sequoia until our most recent wildfire destroyed many of the trees. 

    I find more calming and quiet healing in the mountains than at the ocean. Although the waves moving in and out are mesmerizing, I don’t experience the same calming quiet that mountains provide. 

    Sheltering in place because of Covid, I could not go to the mountains. My experiences of quiet-calm came, however, when I would sit outside in the early morning before leaf blowers or phone calls. I just watched the birds flit . . . while sipping coffee from a warm mug in my bathrobe. Bliss.

    DS Briggs writes and resides in a small cluttered kingdom, with a gigantic dog. She discovered joy in writing while in elementary school. A brief stint as a newspaper reporter while in high school, DS thought journalism would be her college major. However, her writing career stalled in college when she realized she hated analyzing comma placement and switched to social science. DS became an elementary school teacher and later specialized in teaching independent travel skills and braille to students with visual impairments. Retired now, DS has returned to her love of writing thru Marlene Cullen’s Jumpstart Writing Workshops. 

    Marlene C

  • I am a writer . . . I use story to reimagine worlds

    “I am not a writer because I write a certain number of words every day. I am a writer because I use story to reimagine worlds. My value as a writer, citizen, and human is not rooted in my productivity, I tell myself on those brain foggy, exhausted days in which small humans climb on my limbs with no mercy.” —Ruth Osorio, excerpt from Ruth’s guest blog post in Brevity magazine.

    Ruth Osorio, PhD

    As of Fall 2018, I am living my undergraduate student dream as an Assistant Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Old Dominion University. My family lives in Norfolk, VA, where we spend our days chasing kids on the beach. I am also involved in local grassroots organizing tackling the school-to-prison pipeline and school suspensions in Norfolk Public Schools.

    Marlene C

  • Winter Thoughts . . . Prompt #560

    Winter.

    What is the best thing about winter? 

    What is your earliest winter memory?

    Or:

    Most memorable thing that happened in winter.

    Marlene C

  • Time Travel . . . Prompt #559

    Think about a relative or an ancestor who you know very little about. You can jot down names or how the person is related to you if you don’t know their names. Take about two minutes for this.

    Choose one person to focus on. Time travel to when that person lived.

    Write about that person in a “take me back” way . . . using location or place, date, other characters or people who lived then as details to learn about this person.

    You can make things up, imagine conversation, imagine circumstances.  

    There are no wrong answers. Have fun exploring the possibilities of “what if?”

    What if you lived during this time, what would you be doing? Where are you in this scene?

    The Free February 18, 2021 Writers Forum event features Kate Farrell, Waights Taylor, Jr., and Bev Scott chatting about how to research family history and shape your story.

    Writers Forum Details and Zoom URL

    Marlene C