Sunday Journal Prompt

“Today’s accomplishments were yesterday’s impossibilities.” 

– Robert H. Schuller 

As part of a research project about journaling, I’ve been conducting university workshops and collecting surveys for three years. From about fifty workshops, I’ve gathered nearly one thousand responses, far more than I needed. I’d started an article about the project a few years ago, but didn’t finish it since sifting through all the data seemed overwhelming. Rather than facing the pile of surveys I already had, it was easier to keep saying “yes” to requests for workshops, which of course added to my pile of data.

The task seemed crushing, but, as I discovered this week, not doing the project drained me far more than the three days it took to sort and enter my findings. I still have work to do: analyzing my findings, writing the article, finding an academic journal that will publish it. But it feels good to have taken a crucial step toward a goal I set for myself over three years ago. 

What seems impossible? What’s a first step you can take toward it this week?

Sunday Journal Prompt

“We generate fears while we sit. We overcome them by action.” 

– Dr. Henry Link 

Today marks the first day of a ten-day writing residency I’m blessed to have: time away from my job and other responsibilities—every writer’s dream. Yet I’m filled with fear. What if I spend too much time reading, walking, napping or chatting with the other writers? What if I take too long to get started? What if what I write isn’t any good? What if I don’t accomplish what I plan to do?

Worrying robs me of my energy that could be better put into action. I’ve been here before—literally and figuratively. As beautiful as the road ahead is, it’s a long road. By getting started and developing a routine—one that includes writing, reading, walking, napping and socializing—I get into a groove. In my case, the first step is to open my laptop and put one word after another.

What action can you take to dispel fear?

Sunday Journal Prompt

“The past is never dead. It's not even past.” 

– William Faulkner 

I spent a recent weekend in New Orleans, enjoying time with my brother and his family and seeing his daughters perform in a play. A friend drove me by a duplex apartment where I lived for a year during my college days nearly thirty years ago. 

A rush of not just memories but voices returned—those of my two roommates on the first floor and those of the three boys who lived upstairs, mostly voices I hadn’t heard in decades. With this oddly present echo from the past, Faulkner’s quote about the past never dying resonated.

Lately I’ve been obsessed with time-travel narratives—such as Netflix’s Dark and Octavia Butler’s Kindred—and have been thinking about how time, which I often think of as a constant, seems to speed up or slow down. “Time is an illusion,” according to Albert Einstein, which makes me wonder if our perception of time may differ from reality. 

What does the concept of time mean to you? Have you ever thought of it differently?