it is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in this broken world
- Mary Oliver
Good morning from my blue chair,
I’m writing to share the first in a series of my annual reflective writing practices with you. This November practice invites you to reflect back carefully over the year through the lens of Beauty, Truth and Goodness. On this fresh morning the world does seem broken and when I dropped into this writing practice myself, I found the brokenness as well as the wholeness — These are hard times to keep our hearts strong and open. So finding the beauty, truth, and goodness has become all the more compelling as we seek to steady ourselves and find a way to contribute somehow.
For those of you who have dropped into this practice in years past, you will see that I’ve added a new element this year — prompting you to look into both the beautiful and hard truths which are revealing themselves.
Here is the revised practice: Finding the Beauty, Truth and Goodness in the Year
Carve out some time to reflect on the last year in your journal, and then ideally to take a walk or a bath. Pulling out your calendar to jog your memory might be helpful. Then I suggest just softening your gaze back over the past year and responding to the prompts below. You can do this for the year in one sweep or take each season as I suggest below. The invitation here is to be responding to these prompts four times, beginning with the winter a year ago. (Could take you as long as an hour or so to complete . . . ) Significant milestones or intimate moments in your answers are all appropriate. I think you will find that specificity gives wonderful depth to the process.
For each of the seasons, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall:
Describe a time that you experienced beauty.
In what way(s) were you the cause of something beautiful?
In what way(s) was a hard truth revealed to you?
In what way(s) did you reveal or speak a hard truth?
In what way(s) was a beautiful truth revealed to you?
In what way(s) did you reveal or speak a beautiful truth?
In what way(s) were you on the receiving end of goodness?
In what way(s) were you the cause of goodness?
Upon completion, give yourself a little time to let your responses settle in you. Take a walk or a bath, if you can, and take in the beauty, truth and goodness that you found when you put pen to page. You might want to capture some further reflections before moving into the fullness of your day or evening.
I’ll be posting my annual year end practice in December, which will give you an opportunity to look ahead and consider any reorientation, renewed commitments, or actions that all of this may inspire in you.
May we all find our way to contribute. May we all wage peace . . .
Warmly, Lyedie
Every morning you rise, I want you to remember this:
there are amazing things
to be a part of,
and fight for,
and feel,
because the world
will unlock hundreds
of doors when you
give this day
all the courage, love,
and intensity
you can.
Victoria Erickson (author, The Edge of wonder)
Photo credit goes to Gay Foster with gratitiude