inspired to journal

Snippets
© Nan Fischer

These are spontaneous writings that you can use as prompts for your journal.  Feel free to send me anything you write.  

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I don't know how I stumbled across this in my thoughts, but this question popped into my head when I was on a walk.

"Are you afraid to feel good?"

Are people afraid to laugh, so they are ornery all the time? Why would
someone be afraid to feel good? Like I said, I don't know what my train of thought was at the time, so I don't have an essay to write about it. I've just given you the final line of it.

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I knew my parents were aging when...

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Write this scene:  You sit down with your grown children and read your journals together.  Not their journals -  yours!

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The butterscotch is cold and hard.
Hawaii is under 4 feet of snow and ice.
I hear a thundering silence.

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Go back a year in time and observe the differences. Any time of year, it's fun to say, 'Last year at this time...' You'll be amazed at what you can remember (no cheating by reading old journals!).

Now, go to next year. Where do you think you will be? Where do you want to be? How will you get there? If you have no clue, make it up. Make it as fantastic as you can. But if there is a place you want to head to, writing about it can actualize it. At the very least, it can help you define it!

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Using every word in the following list, write a paragraph, poem or story.  You can make your own list by randomly picking a dozen words out of the dictionary.  'Random' is the operative word.

• motto                          

• half                             

• card                            

• troublemaker               

• search                         

• violet                          

• eyewitness

• fail

• grateful

• hammer

• rocking chair

• marigold
  

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Choose a room in your home, and make a list of things in the room. Look at detail, not just the obvious, like windows, chairs, etc. Get past what you see daily, to things you may not even be aware of.

Use your list to write about the room. If you chose a room you love, this may be easy. On the other hand, if you are looking closely at a room you don't care for, you may see why. This exercise could prompt some change. It is also a good one to do several times with different rooms. Don't limit your choice of rooms to just your house, either!

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The prompt: "Sit in a quiet room. Describe the silence."

My response: Silence is my choice of background noise when I'm alone.  People come in my house and notice there is no music or tv filling the space.  Sometimes they're uncomfortable with my choice.  In the silence, I hear my mind, my thoughts, my writing ideas, conversations I'll never have, and some that repeat themselves in disbelief.  Birds squawk, chirp, and fly outside, cows moo, horses whinny, long-off dogs bark.  Hummers fight over the feeder, magpies discuss today's gleanings from the compost pile.  The cat walks around, the sleeping dog breathes. The wicker chair suddenly creaks in the heat or dampness.  Mmmmm... I love the silence.  Is there truly silence?!

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What would your day sound like if you had a tape recorder running all day?  Write the transcript of one scene.

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