Picture Prompts

You know how much I love picture prompts. Here are a few for you off my camera. Pick one and write for 15 minutes.

 

The Little Green Notebook

I built a meditation and writing practice* into the day. It's working as a way of reflection and a way to work through word block.

I bought this composition notebook last year to take notes for our trip to Germany:

It's been a few different things since then

Jumping Bean Poetry Requests

Doodle Paper

Most recently the little green notebook has become my meditation journal and part of my journey to find out what comes after quitting a high powered well-paid corporate job.

Meditation & Writing Practice

What you'll need

• Notebook (Let go of the screen and the keyboards for a while.)
• Pen or pencil you like the flow of (I've been using gel pens because I love the way the glide on the paper
• Timer
• Stapler (optional)
• A jar or container full of writing prompts/questions. (I took these from books that inspire me, and questions that came up as I'm reading. If you are writing a manuscript you might write down questions you would ask your characters or plot questions.)

What to do

Step 1: Lay out our supplies
Step 2: Draw a question from your jar
Step 3: Read the question and write it down
Step 4: Set the timer (I recommend starting with 10-15 minutes)
Step 5: (optional) Get comfortable: (Lay of the floor, sit in a comfy chair)
Close your eyes and allow yourself to wander/wonder into the question until the timer chimes.
Step 6: (optional) Set the timer again (for the same amount of time you wandered)
Step 7: Write whatever comes up
Step 8: (optional) Staple your question to the beginning of your writing or put it back in your jar.

I haven't kept a journal--writing or otherwise for quite sometime. I'm pleasantly surprised how easy using this practice has pushed me over computer word blanks and has given me a new thirst for both writing, studying, and asking questions.

After two weeks is I want to write longer than my 15 minutes. So I do. My favorite meditation position is on my back with my heads out in happy sleeping baby pose to open my heart. What I write about isn't always what I ask about and that's okay. I enjoy surprising myself. I still have no idea what's next.

How do allow your words to flow?

*This practice is inspired by Writing Begins with the Breath by Laraine Herring

Windingly Straight

I was outside in the backyard today and the wind was blowing. I felt for a moment like I was in the prairie strolling though knee high grasses on my Grandpa's farm with my mother. What I realized is that I am never far from home.

Maybe home isn't a place. Maybe home is our journey. Maybe we are all already home.*

What's your home?

Windingly Straight

The butterfly
glides in circles
and sideways
through trees;
lands and
dances away again

We delight in its
hap-hazard path
We laugh in its
drunkenness

But the butterfly
follows the scent of
the alien bee balm,
the sunshine zenia,
purple-crowned bush

The butterfly makes
no mistake--
Flying straightways
to the sweetness
it calls home

The butterfly laughs
turning circles of delight
as we spin along our
windingly straight way;
never quite knowing
we are already home

*Thanks, Jen, for reminding me I am always already home.