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"Write for the twelve-year-old who is looking at a mirror and at a window." —Edwidge Danticat
Remember yourself as a twelve-year-old. Describe yourself--how do you look in the mirror? Now look out the window. What do you see? Who do you long to see? Repeat this exercise for when you were 21, if you wish.
Read moreYou may invite two people whom you would like to hear share their stories and viewpoints.
Who would you choose? What two questions would you want them to answer or discuss?
Today many use their phone to take pictures. Fifteen years ago or longer, many used a digital camera and moved pictures onto their hard drives - never to be seen again. Some took the chip to the drug store or camera shop to have the photos printed, to hold and share. Over the years, picture taking and photography have seen many changes.
Read moreWhen were you last carefree and curious. Prompt based on the poem “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver
Read moreThis is a writing prompt taken from the poet and novelist Ocean Vuong's novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.
Read moreToday you will do things you can predict and other things you could never imagine this minute. Don't reject them. Don't think you can plan your day all out.
This day will never, no matter how long you live, happen again.
———inspired by Naomi Shihab Nye's quotation: "Today you will say things...."
What will be easy for me today or tomorrow?
What is hard for me?
What's hard for me today especially?
(Write for 5 to 30 minutes, the first sentences or phrases that come into your mind. This is not a formal essay.)
Prompt: What is stopping you from doing what you have never done before?
Read moreJohn Lewis, the legendary Senator and Civil Rights activist, told Krista Tippett in an interview before he died that he was able to bypass bitterness and hatred when police and other men were beating him unconscious, spitting at him and calling him foul names. What he trained himself to do was to picture his assailant as a baby, an innocent infant. And then he asked this question in his mind: "What happened to you?"
Think of someone, dead or alive, whom you really don't like because they have been cruel, thoughtless, or toxic to you. Picture in your mind's eye all their physical details. Sit with the negative feelings you may have.
Now try to imagine that person as an infant laying on a blanket.
How hard is this to do?
Write down and describe three or four feelings that this exercise brought up for you.
Rabbi Steve Leder of the Wilshire Blvd. Temple in Los Angeles and author of the book More Beautiful than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us says "Don't come out of hell empty-handed."
Looking back at 2020 when you mostly had to stay sheltered at home, what 4-5 concrete things did you learn were essential to you? Will you add or subtract anything for 2021?
Was there something intangible you found more essential than previous? (I.e. connection, reaching out, cooking yourself big meals, expressing love to friends, etc.)
(inspired by Kate Bowler’s Everything Happens)
I am waiting for a vaccine for the COVID virus.
I am waiting for everyone to have a financial and medical safety net.
I am waiting for no one to go hungry.
I am waiting for the end of gun violence.
I am waiting for the end of grieving in isolation and loneliness.
It is almost Christmas.
It is almost Hanukah.
It is almost time for…
[Complete the sentence above and continue your own list.]
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