We swim in rivers of people. In person, on the screen, in books, in reputation, and in memory. Everybody has to be somewhere. We have experienced so many places, public and personal, from couches to mountaintops. Think about the names of places and people you have known. Write the letters of the alphabet (A-Z) down the left-hand side of the page. For each letter, … [Read more...] about People and Places
Memory
What You Miss
Here in the New Abnormal, definitive, unqualified statements about the future are hard to make. Even the present is difficult to pin down. There are new topics of conversation, altered relationships, new routines and wannabe habits. Today, write about the most solid thing you can: the past. Write about what you miss. Ask yourself: What has been snatched from my life … [Read more...] about What You Miss
Easy Go
Failure to let go. It's at the heart of just about every drama that can occur among humans. Or within a single human. Today, focus on your myriad successes at letting go. Think of objects that you have handled, carried, or put away. When you set them down, you let them go, most likely with minimal effort. Forgetting is a type of letting go. Whatever it was we didn't … [Read more...] about Easy Go
Month by Month
Memory is disorderly, but a calendar is not. Sometimes you can trick unexpected insights from your mind by mapping your disorderly memory onto an orderly calendar. Divide the page into 12 roughly equal sections, each labeled with a month of the year. Scan your memories of the previous year and try to connect the memories with a specific month. When an event occurred. When a … [Read more...] about Month by Month
Yucky Food
Write about the foods that you do not or cannot eat. First, name the food by printing it in capital letters. Then write down everything that you find distasteful about this particular food. What is the origin of your revulsion? Does your relationship with this food have a history? Have you ever eaten the foods that you dislike? How do you react? Meditate upon all … [Read more...] about Yucky Food