Life Passages

Writing into the New Year: Banish Resolutions and Embrace Goals

December 31, 2012
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From December 31 to January 1 is a just a flip of the calendar page from one day to the next. Nothing more. But there’s something about hanging a fresh, new calendar on the wall (pressing the forward button on your electronic calendar) — something about the number 1 — something about the end of [...]

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A Week’s Worth of Journaling Prompts: The Priority Balancing Act

August 20, 2012
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I’m having one of those times. You know—when it’s difficult to keep track of where you’ve been, where you’re going, and what you need to do next. And when I find myself here, in the middle of one of these times, I know that I’ve been letting my commitments rule me instead of ruling my [...]

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A Week’s Worth of Journaling Prompts: The Journey of Grief

May 29, 2012
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Holidays such as Memorial Day lend themselves to thinking about the many expressions grief takes in our lives. For some, the holiday weekend has no personal connections beyond an opportunity for an extra vacation day and barbecue. For others, Memorial Day is a real connection to a loved one’s death through military action or war. [...]

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A Weeks Worth of Journaling Prompts: Breaking Through to the Other Side

May 22, 2012
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I’ve got the title line from The Doors’ song, “Break on Through to the Other side,” running through my head this morning. (Not the rest of the song, which doesn’t make much sense to me, just the one line.) The words seem to exhort me to keep trying, to never give up, and to break [...]

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A Week’s Worth of Journaling Prompts: What’s Blossoming?

April 9, 2012
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I can’t help but breathe deeply. The world is blossoming around me, coming to life through leaf and stem, flower and fragrance. With the late spring rains and near-constant cloud cover, it hasn’t been nearly warm enough for me, but the pink dogwood outside my back door doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, it seems [...]

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A Week’s Worth of Journaling Prompts: Writing Legacy Letters

March 26, 2012
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While choosing which journal writing techniques to include in my new course, Journaling for Memoir Writers, I was reminded of the power of Legacy Letters to explore aspects of ourselves and our life experiences we wish to preserve for the future—whether it’s as a gift for friends and family members or a gift for ourselves [...]

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A Week’s Worth of Journaling Prompts: The Early Years

February 13, 2012
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Last week’s journal writing prompts explored our first memories. This week, we move up to the next period of our lives—what I call “the early years.” The early years begin at roughly kindergarten and end at the beginning of middle school. For me, it was from age four to ten. Physically and intellectually the early [...]

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