Sunday Journal Prompt

“Learn to be quiet enough to hear the sound of the genuine within yourself so that you can hear it in others.”

                            – Marian Wright Endelman

It’s so hard to be still. When I stop at a red light while driving, I find myself checking my phone for texts and emails. At home, I often rush from room to room, looking for a misplaced item or putting clean laundry in drawers. When I eat alone, I flip through a magazine. While cooking, I listen to a podcast. Even though I know that constant input drains me, I find myself seeking it.

The writer Ron Carlson says that he writes each morning before checking email or reading the news. “That’s about what other people have to say. Instead I want to see what I have to say.”

Write down something you fill your time with that you can postpone—or skip entirely—today. Instead, listen to what you have to say.