Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
Dear Suleika,
Honest truth? I will deeply miss this new nation of scribblers and painters and quirky creatives. I will miss YOU! (And just when I finally learned how to pronounce your last name.) Thank you for the brilliant prompts you've curated, for the daily encouragement to take out our tools and our hearts and MAKE SOMETHING. I fervently wish for your good health and a joyful life with Jon.
From Rumi:
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
Thank You for this gift from Patty who introduced me to Suleika,, who in turn gave me hope, that I am in the right place, at the right time doing the right thing being on purpose. I have been Journaling for years, dealing with flow, wolf, and Florence ( the little girl, my disease of addiction/alcoholism, and the women God has Created me to be, the past two years breast Cancer Stage 4..
At this time and this past Journaling has reconfirm and aid my purpose, moral, inventory, a bucket list, Most important keep on living.
In the Meantime Be Blessed Suleika and Thank You for Sharing You❤️😇✌️🙏
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
My goodness I just blew myself away. I drew myself in watercolors. Looks like a child painted me but guess what! My essence I got which is “world here I am!” I look so confident, alive and fun. It made me feel “I love this cool person. I love hanging out with her. She’s a born storyteller!” Wow, just wow! What a wonderful gift I’ve given to me.
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
Oh I love this self portrait prompt and the idea of a 100 day drawing practice. Delicious!
I didn't complete yesterday's prompt because approaching the age of 74, I wondered about what to write.
At a Hatch meeting back in December, because of not being a writer, I addressed the idea of not being good enough to write anything down. This was Carmen's answer: "Not being good enough is common even among writers. Most important is to meet yourself where you are, take what helps, let the rest go. Sometimes there is only one word in the prompt to set you off. It doesn't need to be totally the prompt. Prompts are inspiration, not rules. Just keep coming back and take inspiration from others, not fear they are better. We are all here learning." Thank you so much for this, Carmen! It's like getting permission to just do it and explore or in Suleika's words, "Yallah!"
So today, I know how to respond to this prompt. It will be more to the immediate future. I will complete my own commitment to 100 days of journaling. I have 21 more days after today. I will begin a 100 day drawing practice and plan to work on answering the memoir questions in Julia Cameron's book, "It's Never Too Late to Begin Again." Further into the future, I might add to my response a vision I have of living out my older age in a lovely country home somewhere near a body of water where I watch the sun rise and set in all it's glory. I will always wear comfy clothes I love, be surrounded by good books and continue play with my creativity.
So this may be the end of 30 days but at the same time leaving us rich with new ideas to continue learning and having fun! A million thanks to Isolation Journals and all of you who make it possible and keep breathing new life into it in so many wonderful ways. ☀️❤
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
Bravo! Here we are. I want to share that at around day 15 I decided to apply for a writing fellowship for the first time. I’ve been filled with self doubt and fear about committing to write for something beyond my journal. I spent the last decade in a classroom teaching music at an elementary school and most recently at home mothering a 1 year old. Meanwhile I always journaled but I kept my practice guarded- a joy held tightly for myself. So each morning before working on my application, I opened my journal or sketch book. I checked in with this community. I found the edges softened. My mind would take a break from sliding in the soupy “what ifs”. When I found myself getting stuck, I’d ask myself, “how can I find some ease?” I ended up reaching out to friends, recording voice memos, taking out colored pencils and knitting a funky little snake. On Day 30 I am amazed.
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
I sometimes feel ‘gratitude’ can get overused in my world but today that is exactly how I am feeling: such deep gratitude for this process. I was at the ocean last week during a wicked storm, surf was up, wind was whipping. I stood on the shore, drenched feeling the pulse of her ancient rhythms and realized I am a different place now because this process has connected me to some truths that were a challenge and I now could feel something(s) deep and real. Thank you, Suleika, for facilitating this and for bringing such inspiration from your words and the words of other artists and the words of other participants into my life.
Bless this wonderful community! The prompt today is scary to me but I’ll try, I will try. That’s the best I can do. Again, facing my fear. Thank you to all in this community and to you courageous Suleika! You all are amazing!
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
Happy to have another month, and to give myself permission to move at this pace which is more realistic for me. And, to rekindle the spark was this amazing idea (which I take as a prompt) from today’s NYT
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
This has been a wonderful experience. Giving myself an unabashed high five for making all 30 days. Not for checking the boxes … But for the insight, self-love, connection to others and joy that it has brought. Thank you Suleika Jaouad for being fully yourself! Thank you to every single person here on this thread. Love, peace and joy for the journey!
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
Thank you for keeping it up for 30 more days! The beginning of April didn’t allow for me to start. So I’m working through at my own pace - now on Day 8 - I have been writing to the prompts in order then reading the chat from that day. I keep telling myself that I’m not behind - I’m where I’m supposed to be! And it’s fun to have the community support & resonance of chat even doing it on a different timeline. Hoping the chat can stay up 30 more days too!
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
These sentences, like so many other words before and from many community members, touch my heart so much and I would like to thank you for all the warmth I would never have suspected I could feel in such a format!
I look very much forward to doing the 15 journaling days I didn't manage to do and to continue journaling after that. At the beginning I wrote that I journaled last as a teenager; I never expected that it would be -thanks to life with all its colours and thanks to all your wonderful impulses- even so much better 30 years later.
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
These 30 days have shown me -- once again -- that I can keep a promise to myself. Thank you, Suleika, for the invitation, the encouragement, and the accompaniment!
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
Good rainy Sunday morning, my fellow co-journalers! I have mixed feelings about ending this journaling experience today. I don’t seem to have gotten the ‘big’ epiphanies about myself others have though I can’t deny the prompts have been a ton of fun (I love my closed-eye giraffe and suggested to my husband he propose to his team they do the exercise the next time they have a ‘team-building’ night, which might be hilarious because they usually end up at a tapas/wine bar outside of Harvard Square). Suleika’s essay today itself contained many great prompts: how has my life changed these last 30 days? What hasn’t? Is my mind more clear with the practice? What has my journal become - scratch pad, friend, confessor, portal to a different me? I’m definitely blowing my 3-page limit today. I bought a whole new journal the other day - nothing fancy, but with features I feel I need, such as alternating blank and lined pages and with an attached pocket in the back for ‘treasures’ - not really acknowledging consciously either that this project is over, or that I will continue with the practice. I just love my stationer’s, and I loved that I felt well enough to ride my bike to Cambridge and back and not mind that I shat myself while perusing the contents of a Little Free Library under a blossoming magnolia with gracious tuneful song birds as witnesses. (No big deal; they discretely shit themselves all the time, and if their mutes are considered good luck should they fall on someone, why not mine? I didn’t even bother them to accommodate me.) So I guess I’m a journaler, and book scrounger, and a bird-human cryptid, who loves her bike again. 😄But I think what I’ll miss the most now that our time together is at an end is reading (and hearing) not just about Suleika’s magnificent triumph of life but of so many others’, too. Everyone has been so open and compassionate and supportive of each other - and themselves, which is a bit of a novelty to me but something I see has vivified this entire group of souls, many of whom are becoming friends with themselves for the first time, too, and discovering precious wisdom in their ailing bodies and tested spirits. Yay you! So thank you for letting my inner cheerleader have a place to raise her pom-poms. You’re all terrific - be well.
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
Yesterday, I composed a music piece titled “Surface Appearance, Spyhole into the Story”. Though I have a background in art, including drawing, pottery, and poetry, it is improvising music that engages me and so I turn to music to turn towards life. A self-portrait, a choice of daily wear, personal expression, for me, begins with one tone, one sound that opens a window out to a vast landscape and universe. Best, David 🏮
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
When I first saw this prompt I did not want to do it. I know that my drawings look like a child did them and I cannot get my hands to draw what I am thinking. I decided to start with the medium I feel most comfortable with which is making a collage. I made a collage that represents how I see myself and then I drew myself in pastel looking like a child since that is level my drawing is at and I did not feel too bad that it looked like it was made by a child. I ended up having fun and not taking myself too seriously. Kudos to me for trying.
Dear Suleika,
Honest truth? I will deeply miss this new nation of scribblers and painters and quirky creatives. I will miss YOU! (And just when I finally learned how to pronounce your last name.) Thank you for the brilliant prompts you've curated, for the daily encouragement to take out our tools and our hearts and MAKE SOMETHING. I fervently wish for your good health and a joyful life with Jon.
From Rumi:
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the
ground.
Thank You for this gift from Patty who introduced me to Suleika,, who in turn gave me hope, that I am in the right place, at the right time doing the right thing being on purpose. I have been Journaling for years, dealing with flow, wolf, and Florence ( the little girl, my disease of addiction/alcoholism, and the women God has Created me to be, the past two years breast Cancer Stage 4..
At this time and this past Journaling has reconfirm and aid my purpose, moral, inventory, a bucket list, Most important keep on living.
In the Meantime Be Blessed Suleika and Thank You for Sharing You❤️😇✌️🙏
My goodness I just blew myself away. I drew myself in watercolors. Looks like a child painted me but guess what! My essence I got which is “world here I am!” I look so confident, alive and fun. It made me feel “I love this cool person. I love hanging out with her. She’s a born storyteller!” Wow, just wow! What a wonderful gift I’ve given to me.
Oh I love this self portrait prompt and the idea of a 100 day drawing practice. Delicious!
I didn't complete yesterday's prompt because approaching the age of 74, I wondered about what to write.
At a Hatch meeting back in December, because of not being a writer, I addressed the idea of not being good enough to write anything down. This was Carmen's answer: "Not being good enough is common even among writers. Most important is to meet yourself where you are, take what helps, let the rest go. Sometimes there is only one word in the prompt to set you off. It doesn't need to be totally the prompt. Prompts are inspiration, not rules. Just keep coming back and take inspiration from others, not fear they are better. We are all here learning." Thank you so much for this, Carmen! It's like getting permission to just do it and explore or in Suleika's words, "Yallah!"
So today, I know how to respond to this prompt. It will be more to the immediate future. I will complete my own commitment to 100 days of journaling. I have 21 more days after today. I will begin a 100 day drawing practice and plan to work on answering the memoir questions in Julia Cameron's book, "It's Never Too Late to Begin Again." Further into the future, I might add to my response a vision I have of living out my older age in a lovely country home somewhere near a body of water where I watch the sun rise and set in all it's glory. I will always wear comfy clothes I love, be surrounded by good books and continue play with my creativity.
So this may be the end of 30 days but at the same time leaving us rich with new ideas to continue learning and having fun! A million thanks to Isolation Journals and all of you who make it possible and keep breathing new life into it in so many wonderful ways. ☀️❤
Bravo! Here we are. I want to share that at around day 15 I decided to apply for a writing fellowship for the first time. I’ve been filled with self doubt and fear about committing to write for something beyond my journal. I spent the last decade in a classroom teaching music at an elementary school and most recently at home mothering a 1 year old. Meanwhile I always journaled but I kept my practice guarded- a joy held tightly for myself. So each morning before working on my application, I opened my journal or sketch book. I checked in with this community. I found the edges softened. My mind would take a break from sliding in the soupy “what ifs”. When I found myself getting stuck, I’d ask myself, “how can I find some ease?” I ended up reaching out to friends, recording voice memos, taking out colored pencils and knitting a funky little snake. On Day 30 I am amazed.
I sometimes feel ‘gratitude’ can get overused in my world but today that is exactly how I am feeling: such deep gratitude for this process. I was at the ocean last week during a wicked storm, surf was up, wind was whipping. I stood on the shore, drenched feeling the pulse of her ancient rhythms and realized I am a different place now because this process has connected me to some truths that were a challenge and I now could feel something(s) deep and real. Thank you, Suleika, for facilitating this and for bringing such inspiration from your words and the words of other artists and the words of other participants into my life.
Bless this wonderful community! The prompt today is scary to me but I’ll try, I will try. That’s the best I can do. Again, facing my fear. Thank you to all in this community and to you courageous Suleika! You all are amazing!
This is my favourite prompt of the month! With the regular journalling, the task does not feel daunting. I am excited to see what turns up
Happy to have another month, and to give myself permission to move at this pace which is more realistic for me. And, to rekindle the spark was this amazing idea (which I take as a prompt) from today’s NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/magazine/childhood-memories-floor-plans.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Want to Explore Your Childhood? Start With a Floor Plan.
This has been a wonderful experience. Giving myself an unabashed high five for making all 30 days. Not for checking the boxes … But for the insight, self-love, connection to others and joy that it has brought. Thank you Suleika Jaouad for being fully yourself! Thank you to every single person here on this thread. Love, peace and joy for the journey!
Thank you for keeping it up for 30 more days! The beginning of April didn’t allow for me to start. So I’m working through at my own pace - now on Day 8 - I have been writing to the prompts in order then reading the chat from that day. I keep telling myself that I’m not behind - I’m where I’m supposed to be! And it’s fun to have the community support & resonance of chat even doing it on a different timeline. Hoping the chat can stay up 30 more days too!
These sentences, like so many other words before and from many community members, touch my heart so much and I would like to thank you for all the warmth I would never have suspected I could feel in such a format!
I look very much forward to doing the 15 journaling days I didn't manage to do and to continue journaling after that. At the beginning I wrote that I journaled last as a teenager; I never expected that it would be -thanks to life with all its colours and thanks to all your wonderful impulses- even so much better 30 years later.
These 30 days have shown me -- once again -- that I can keep a promise to myself. Thank you, Suleika, for the invitation, the encouragement, and the accompaniment!
And now begins the next 30 days....
Good rainy Sunday morning, my fellow co-journalers! I have mixed feelings about ending this journaling experience today. I don’t seem to have gotten the ‘big’ epiphanies about myself others have though I can’t deny the prompts have been a ton of fun (I love my closed-eye giraffe and suggested to my husband he propose to his team they do the exercise the next time they have a ‘team-building’ night, which might be hilarious because they usually end up at a tapas/wine bar outside of Harvard Square). Suleika’s essay today itself contained many great prompts: how has my life changed these last 30 days? What hasn’t? Is my mind more clear with the practice? What has my journal become - scratch pad, friend, confessor, portal to a different me? I’m definitely blowing my 3-page limit today. I bought a whole new journal the other day - nothing fancy, but with features I feel I need, such as alternating blank and lined pages and with an attached pocket in the back for ‘treasures’ - not really acknowledging consciously either that this project is over, or that I will continue with the practice. I just love my stationer’s, and I loved that I felt well enough to ride my bike to Cambridge and back and not mind that I shat myself while perusing the contents of a Little Free Library under a blossoming magnolia with gracious tuneful song birds as witnesses. (No big deal; they discretely shit themselves all the time, and if their mutes are considered good luck should they fall on someone, why not mine? I didn’t even bother them to accommodate me.) So I guess I’m a journaler, and book scrounger, and a bird-human cryptid, who loves her bike again. 😄But I think what I’ll miss the most now that our time together is at an end is reading (and hearing) not just about Suleika’s magnificent triumph of life but of so many others’, too. Everyone has been so open and compassionate and supportive of each other - and themselves, which is a bit of a novelty to me but something I see has vivified this entire group of souls, many of whom are becoming friends with themselves for the first time, too, and discovering precious wisdom in their ailing bodies and tested spirits. Yay you! So thank you for letting my inner cheerleader have a place to raise her pom-poms. You’re all terrific - be well.
Yesterday, I composed a music piece titled “Surface Appearance, Spyhole into the Story”. Though I have a background in art, including drawing, pottery, and poetry, it is improvising music that engages me and so I turn to music to turn towards life. A self-portrait, a choice of daily wear, personal expression, for me, begins with one tone, one sound that opens a window out to a vast landscape and universe. Best, David 🏮
When I first saw this prompt I did not want to do it. I know that my drawings look like a child did them and I cannot get my hands to draw what I am thinking. I decided to start with the medium I feel most comfortable with which is making a collage. I made a collage that represents how I see myself and then I drew myself in pastel looking like a child since that is level my drawing is at and I did not feel too bad that it looked like it was made by a child. I ended up having fun and not taking myself too seriously. Kudos to me for trying.