Quarantine Prompt a Day <3 Community
30 March 2020
Make art about the changing nature of community in these times.
Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
Quarantine Prompt a Day <3 Elders
26 March 2020
My grandmothers. Two women from completely different worlds, cultures, backgrounds, across a vast socioeconomic divide, brought together at the end of their lives, because my parents loved each other, and loved them.
From Miz Pearl I learned about survival, food preservation, foraging, mending, how to find and create beauty even on the darkest days, and the power of prayer, especially when it’s sung. From Miz Ann I learned about the joy to be found in making things with your hands, the value of being a smartass, the pervasive connection of laughter, which fork to use 🙂 and how even the brashest and most self-regarding among us can learn the power of gratitude and humility.
Fierce women, strong women, wise women, loving women, despite the brokenness life dealt both of them. When they lived together, sharing the same room in my parents’ house, in the twilight of their lives, they became unlikely friends and sisters. ‘Cause that’s what Love does. 
Make art about what you’ve learned from elders, about the gifts they bring to our lives.
Quarantine Prompt a Day <3 Together
23 March 2020
Even though we’re social distancing, we’re not alone. People everywhere are showing so much imagination and commitment to reaching out across the imposed distance.
Make art about coming together, about the strength we have when we come together, about how much more is possible we come together.
Quarantine Prompt a Day <3 Regular Comfort
22 March 2020
One of the ways I’m coping with self-isolation is by working to keep what I can of my daily and weekly routines.
Waking at the same time I would if going to campus to work, walking the dog at the same times along the same route each day. That quiet cup of coffee in the morning, the slow ease of a glass of red wine at night.
Wednesdays I strip the beds, wash sheets, and put crisp, new bed linens on, with assistance from a particularly ‘helpful’ cat 😀
Saturday mornings I clean and wash the litter boxes, empty out and clean my fridge, mop the hardwood floors, clean the bathroom.
These small acts so much a part of my ‘normal’ weekly schedule, I’m finding, are helping to make the crisis we’re all sharing a bit less overwhelming, providing some balance in a regular, now-that’s-better, way.
“Routine” as a descriptor often gets a bad rap, but right now, it feels a lot like comfort.
Make art about the comfort to be found in routines.
Quarantine Prompt a Day <3 Touch
20 March 2020
Make art inspired by the following quote.
“Touch has memory.”– John Keats
Quarantine Prompt a Day <3 Feeding
18 March 2020
Nourish the body. Feed the soul.
Thinking on all the things that fed me these last few days. Yes, the meals shared with my son, but also my brother-man Eric in West Virginia, with his guitar, serenading the world with an Irish song, the silly memes my sister Adaire and I sent back and forth to each other, my young alum Katlyn and her friend selflessly working to collect donations for families and kids in need in quarantine, my current students excitedly discussing their short stories and poems in our online class, my friend Brigid writing a new comic who shared the pages with me, the sound of my friend Lynne’s laughter through the phone, my old dog sleeping on his purple pillow, my silly cat Moco biting my elbow because I was ignoring him, the humming of the bees across the burgeoning green in my yard, the multitude of good people out there doing good work teaching, sharing, cooking, donating–coping, all of them, in beautiful, humane, and community-minded ways.
So much, in the midst of this fear, to feed the soul.
Make art about one thing recently that fed your soul.
Quarantine Prompt a Day <3 Through that Window
17 March 2020
Often we’re too busy to notice the view right in front of us. One of my students, when I asked about what they missed being away from home, softly described the view of the city at night from his bedroom window in what he called ‘the projects where I live.’
“At night,” he said, “the lights go on forever, and every light, I think, is a soul.”
Make art about seeing the world through your window.
Restarting the Prompt a Day <3 Since We're Isolating…
14 March 2020
Personal matters and responsibilities had grown to the point that I simply didn’t have the time or energy to keep up with my daily prompts. But now, I think we need art, and creativity, and beautiful distraction, more than ever. So 🙂 here we go again. Let’s start with the obvious. Take care of your beautiful selves ❤
Make art about feeling overwhelmed, about stopping to breathe in the midst of the onslaught, about caring for yourself in spite of the stress.
Daily Prompt Love <3 Retreat
13 September 2019
I’m headed off to lead a workshop at the fabulous Porches Writers Retreat this weekend ❤
Make art about seeking refuge, about retreat.
Daily Prompt Love <3 What's Revealed
12 September 2019
Make art about what’s revealed, what you see, in the patterns.
Mary Carroll-Hackett: Poetry and Prose 
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