Begin with "Remember..."

Begin with the word "Remember..."

That's my quick and simple journal prompt for you today. Just show up to a notebook page, journal, or digital doc and write the word "Remember..." and then let it lead you wherever it may take you.

I used this prompt myself earlier this week, inspired by another wonderful writing teacher, Nadia Colburn, who taught me the 15-minute meditation and writing practice which is the model for my own Journal Jumpstarts. (Her website is full of free resources, so don't hesitate to check it out).

What follows below is the poem-prayer I wrote starting with the word "Remember," as modeled in this poem by Joy Harjo. I wrote it on Ash Wednesday, so it also reflects the themes of that observance. May you receive it as a blessing for all of your days and all of your remembering:

Remember today that you are dust

and to dust you will return:

star-dust

planet-dust

tree-dust

flower-dust.

You are the skin of the Earth,

an epidermis

sensing, feeling, and knowing,

then putting it all into language.

Remember that you do not carry

the world on your shoulders.

It was here,

alive, before you,

and it continues

after you die.

Your death is part

of the fabric of continuance;

your return to dust

is merely

a new beginning.

Remember that your brief time

as an upright

skin creature

matters anyway, matters more

that you will ever know--

that you choose to be fully alive

through all the seasons of your breath;

that you choose

to let yourself love yourself,

others, and the whole wide world;

that you offer your hands and feet

and service from the heart--

it all matters.

These choices are your life-love

threading through all

peoples, all

skins, all

creatures, all

mountains, all

ocean, all sky.

It matters, you matter,

even

as all matter changes, turns,

becomes

by dying

and rising again.

P.S. I'm planning a forthcoming offering to support writing for resilience, and I want to learn about you and your interests If you write in a journal or some other way for the purposes of self-reflection, resilience, and/or creative expression, OR if you do not, I would love to hear from you! Please click the button below to fill out my survey:

Writing for Resilience (or not) Survey