Dear Friends,

I don’t know about you, but I’ve not been able to keep up with all of my own prompts!  Of course, some of them are oldies but goodies, and I’ve done them before, but I’m finding that if I respond to even old prompts now that I gain additional insight.

So today’s prompt is to review and catch up on the prompts so far —- or at least to pick one that you haven’t been able to do, and to play with that today.

Any questions?  Comments?  I’ve been getting a lot of personal responses from women telling me that the prompts have been very helpful, and that makes me very grateful.

With love,

Cat

This is day 21 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro page http://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: http://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Dear Friends,

Yesterday’s prompt brought to mind another metaphor that I’ve heard many times over the years.  It’s the whole idea that the waste in our lives can become compost that will allow new things to grow in the future.  I also thought that there could be great fun in drawing, painting, collaging, or otherwise imaging that which is “waste” in our lives, and then imaging some of the new growth that may become possible.

After imaging, do a little writing, asking what needs to be composted now in our lives. Remember that for the compost to be formed, there needs to be a lot of micro-organisms (i.e., helpers), and a lot of heat generated to do the alchemizing of the waste into something new.  Otherwise, we’ll just have a pile of rotting waste.  Who are your helpers?  What’s the heat that will do the alchemizing?  How will you make sure your life isn’t just filled with a pile of rotting waste?

With love,

Cat

This is day 20 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro page http://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: http://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Dear Friends, Human Be-ings all,

Today I want you to think about Bees, about how they take the pollen, something very ordinary in their lives, then mix it with their blood, sweat, and tears, (Okay, their saliva), sit with it for a while (okay, fanning it for a long time), and slowly, wonderfully, they are able to make ambrosia — food for the gods — out of it.

Sweet, natural (but the result of a long process. . . .) HONEY!!!

Also, something like our lives, eh?  We take our ordinary selves, then through blood, sweat and tears, a long time of sitting and reflecting on things, we can make ourselves (with help from whomever can help) something sweet with which to nourish the world.

Write and image about “Bee-ing” this transformation.

With love,

Cat

“Listening for Visions”, acrylic, Cat Charissage 2013

Dear Friends,

What is your whole relationship to “doing”?  Are you a human being or a human doing?    What comes up when or if you spend time not doing?  Is this a soul issue?

Image yourself as a human being, not a human doing.

Enjoy!

With love,

Cat

This is day 18 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro page http://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: http://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Cat Charissage, acrylic, 2013

Dear Friends,

Just now I’m looking at a billowy pile of grey clouds across a grey sky.  And there’s the merest hint of the color lavender in one small area.  Is that color really there?  Is it reflecting off the window in some way?  An illusion sparked by my window’s curtains?  Am I imagining it?  If I’m imagining it, is it real?  If I image it in my journal, then it really will be there/here.

What do you see that may or may not be real?  Does it feed your soul?  If so, image it, and MAKE it real.  Does it dampen your soul?  Let it be gone.

This works not only for colors in clouds, but in interpretations of voice tones, in “visions”, in figuring out peoples’ motivations, in supporting or harming our own health.  And of course the question can be asked, is the soul visible?

What do you see that may or may not be real?  What’s “real” anyway?

Image it, or write about it.

With love,

Cat

This is day 17 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro page http://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: http://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

(Cat Charissage, acrylic, 2014)

Dear Friends,

What will you be able to do today to rest on your Depth Dimension Day?  For those of us with church families, I know that Sundays are not always very restful days, what with ministries, obligations, committees, getting kids dressed and out the door in time, making sure there’s food to greet us when we get back home, and socializing with people we might not necessarily be wanting to be socializing with. (To be blunt and “real”.)

And for others of us who do not include a worship service on our Sundays, if we were raised in a religious tradition there’s often an ambiguous feeling of restlessness, perhaps even guilt, as we sleep in or find ourselves wandering the house on Sunday mornings, not exactly sure what we should be doing.

Of course, others of us work at our jobs all day Sundays, probably not even able to read this until supper time, wondering what it might be like to actually take a day of “rest”.

If you can, invest a little time today writing about your Sundays and whether they are nurturing for you.  If so, identify what is beloved about them, and then guard that from being encroached upon.  If they are not nurturing, be honest about it.  Perhaps you can’t change anything about that for now, but if you can, do it.  In any case, at least be fully honest with yourself, and it’s fully normal and human to feel ambivalent or conflicting emotions.

With love,

Cat

This is day 16 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro page http://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: http://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Dear Friends,

Your prompt for today is to write about what you’d like to see in your timeline over the next 10 years.  I’m not talking here, necessarily, about goals and “to-do’s”, but about your relationship with your body and with your deepest self, which I’ve been calling your “soul-life”.

How do you want to feel about body and soul in the next few years?  What kinds of attitudes, activities, or opportunities do you need to foster these feelings and experiences?  If body and soul are doing well now, what is helping them do well now, and how will you continue that into your future with whatever life events and changes are inevitably on the horizon?  By inevitable events, I’m referring to things like children becoming teenagers or leaving home, menopause, finishing a school program or a particular long-term work project, retirement. . .

Do a little bit of realistic dreaming today.

With love,

Cat

This is day 15 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro page http://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: http://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Dear Friends,

Today’s prompt is a continuation of The Times of My Life, the directions of which are posted here:  http://catcharissage.com/2014/11/12/day-12-to-see-what-we-can-see-the-times-of-my-life/.

Now you’ve written in the major events of your life above the timeline, and then in two streams below it you’ve included events, strong feelings, and deep impressions in both your physical body and in your soul-life.  Now’s the time to look at it and ask yourself some questions.  You may want to write the answers either in point form, or in a stream of consciousness technique on the next page or on a page you will tape over your timeline.

What connections do you notice, if any?  Have some of the eventful times of your body coincided with soul growth or sense of personal identity?  Have you moved a lot in your life?  Or travelled?  Are there any patterns in how those events correlate with your physical, bodily experiences?  Are there long periods of few life events, but lots of pleasant bodily experience?  Where have been the barren parts of your life so far?  What about “biggies” like first sexual experience, birth of a child, menopause?  What about the times when your parents had a serious illness, or if they have died?  Who were you nurtured by as a child?  A parent?  Or a little patch of woods?  Or the nuns at your elementary school?

What other questions or connections can you think of?  Can you summarize any personal insights that this has brought?

When you’re finished writing, be sure to include color, sketches, or symbols on your page.

If you happen to enjoy this work and have the time, something very rewarding to do would be to create a timeline of the events of each of your parent’s lives on separate timelines.  Just fill it out to the best of your limited knowledge.  Either don’t bother with the bodily and soul-life streams, or include what you know in the general “events” stream.  At this point in time, don’t yet share this exercise with your parent —- glean your own insights first; you may not ever want to share your thoughts on this.   When I did a variation of this exercise with a group led by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, many participants, including myself, became aware of generational patterns we had not seen before.  Even if you have no “aha!” experience with this, just thinking about your parents’ childhoods and young adulthoods creates a little more understanding and empathy.

Please share any insights you might be having, or comments and questions.  You can comment on the blogpost or email me at [my name] at gmail.com.

With love,

Cat

This is day 14 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro page http://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: http://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Dear Friends,

Please make sure you’ve read yesterday’s post, as this is a continuation of The Times of My Life:  http://catcharissage.com/2014/11/12/day-12-to-see-what-we-can-see-the-times-of-my-life/.

I realized, as I was filling out my timelines yesterday, that it was taking longer than my promised 10 minutes to half an hour.  So, today, I invite you to carry your journal around with you in your activities today and fill in your three timelines in snatched moments today, as well as within your (hopefully) dedicated journalling time.

So, carry on!  Begin to notice where a lot of things happen in your life.  Are there clusters of events and insights?  Long stretches of nothing much going on?  Just fill in your timelines today and notice.

With love,

Cat

This is day 12 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro page http://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: http://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Dear Friends,

Today I want to encourage you to make a timeline of your life, with three “threads” of events.  These threads are braided in each of our lives, and it’s helpful to become conscious of them and their interconnectedness.

On one side of the timeline, write in the major events of your life so far.  Events such as where and when you were born, major moves, high school graduation, first job and/or college, marriage or significant relationships, death of grandparents or parents, etc.  These would be all the things you would eventually share with a good friend.

On the other side of the timeline, write in the major events of your physical body so far.  Starting with your birth, note if it was particularly complex or traumatic.  Record major illnesses or accidents that you remember.  Also, very importantly, write in the pleasurable bodily events:  experiences of the warmth of the sun, being sheltered by a tree, the pleasure of swimming, first sexual experiences.  Include the birth of children, chronic conditions, things like that.

On this same side of the timeline, but in a separate stream, write down whatever you would call the spiritual or soulful events of your life:  baptism or confirmation, “Sunday school” or other religious instruction, a moving experience in nature, feelings of essential “rightness” in the world, feelings of God’s presence, however you might describe that.  Include times of trial and doubt, times and places you perhaps searched for life’s meaning, moments of despair,  even when or if you left your religious heritage or decided you were an atheist or agnostic.

Tomorrow we will ask some questions of these timelines.  For now, record the facts, ma’am, just the facts.  In the photo above, I have included how I set up the timelines, though I’ve omitted most of my personal details.

With love,

Cat

This is day 12 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro page http://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: http://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.