"This work is unlike any other, in its range of rich, conjuring imagery and its dexterity, its smart voice. Carroll-Hackett doesn’t spare us—but doesn’t save us—she draws a blueprint of power and class with her unflinching pivot: matter-of-fact and tender." —Jan Beatty

Posts tagged ‘creative nonfiction prompts’

Daily Prompt Love <3 Judge Not

13 March 2017

I unfriended someone this morning on social media, a woman who leads with her “I’m a Christian” banner, but who daily and consistently posts things that are disparaging to others, about people and groups of people with whom I know personally she has little actual experience. She’s older, and has limited life experience, so I had alternately either ignored her ignorance or had tried, gently, to share my own experiences with the people she judged. Her fear, it seems, runs too deep. But this morning, as she posted multiple things mocking and denigrating millennials, I was just done.

Am I judging her? Maybe. I’ll think on that. Pray on it too. But for now, her persistent fear and judgment of people about whom she is ignorant are not something I want in my life every day. 

Make art about judging, about judging through ignorance, or–be brave!–educate yourself on someone you have previously judged. 

dont-judge

Daily Prompt Love <3 Getting Lost, and Finding Home

11 March 2017

Spent the day lost in a book. 

Make art about being lost in a good way.

lost good way

12 March 2017

Dreamt a future conversation with my grandson, where we talked about what it meant to create home wherever you are, that our true home is what we carry inside us, from our experiences, from the ancestors. He nodded solemnly, as if he already knew this. 

Make art about where home is, or how we create home. 

home heart ancestors

 

Daily Prompt Love <3 Hello From the Other Side

10 March 2017

Make art about messages from the other side.

other side

 

Daily Prompt Love <3 Two Today <3 On Power, and Violence

8 March 2017

Make art about collective power. 

collective

9 March 2017

Make art about the violence of poverty. 

poverty of violence

Daily Prompt Love <3 In Hiding

7 March 2017

Make about what you’re hiding, about what they’re hiding. 

what you're hiding

 

Daily Prompt Love <3 We Are the Other

6 March 2017

Make art about the Other, about Otherness, about being the Other, about fearing the Other,  about discovering the Other.

other

all-others

Daily Prompt Love Catch-Up <3 Uncles & Curiosity

4 March 2017

In many cultures, the teaching of heritage and cultural practices is carried out by members of the extended family, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. In certain cultures, this relationship and teaching is formally recognized, and in cultures with matrilineal descent is referred to as the avunculate, sometimes called avunculism or avuncularism, a social institution where a special relationship exists between an uncle and his sisters’ children. Several Native American tribes practice a form of this, where the uncle is responsible for teaching the children social values and proper behavior while inheritance and ancestry is reckoned through the mother’s family alone. Modern day influences have somewhat but not completely erased this tradition.

Thinking on this especially today, as I watch my sons interact with their sister’s baby son, my GrandPerson Max <3. Thinking on it too, as it’s the weekend of my lovely daughter’s birthday, and my own brother, Bill, now gone on to the next life, was present and there for her literally from the moment she first drew breath. He remained a constant source of Love and education for all of my kids until he left us. My daughter Lia couldn’t say ‘Uncle Bill’ when she was small; it came out ‘Opie Gill.’  So now her brothers are not just ‘Uncles’ to her son, but ‘Opies.” Important job they have ❤ And I have no doubt they’ll honor it well. 

Make art about extended family, about aunts, or uncles, about those elders from whom we learn our culture. 

j-and-max

5 March 2017

Spent the day with my sons, two wise and funny young men.  The two things that impress me about both of them are: 1) their shared sense of honor, and 2) their shared insatiable curiosity. They are both always–always–learning something new, or seeking to learn something new, or thinking about how they can learn something new. 

Make art about learning, about loving to learn, about the magic and mystery of curiosity. 

curiosity_quote

 

 

Daily Prompt Love <3 On Miracles Being Born

3 March 2017

“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.”-Osho

Thirty years ago today, the first of the three greatest miracles of my life occurred: I met my daughter Lia. Now she’s a mama herself ❤ The miracle of Endless Love ❤ 

Make art about daughters, or about being born. 

 

5

Daily Prompt Love <3 Fixing What's Broken

So in the last few months, I’ve experienced a broken pipe, a broken arm, and broken car. 

Make art about fixing what’s broken. 

broken-heart

Daily Prompt Love <3 What Mama Said About Courage

1 Marc h 2017

My mama had all kinds of sayings, repeated enough that we called them Mamalisms. Thinking on those today, especially what she had to say about courage. 

“You have to have the courage of your convictions.”

“Courage doesn’t mean you’re not afraid. Courage means being afraid, and doing it anyway.”

“Sometimes you’re gonna find, when it’s what’s right, you have to be strong enough to stand even if it means people won’t like you.” 

‘People tend to think of courage being loud, but more often than not, real courage is quiet, and goes unnoticed, just people doing the right thing, the thing their conscience tells them is what needs to be done.”

“Sometimes, you have to not only be brave for yourself, but brave for others. To whom much is given, much is expected. If you have the resources to fight on someone else’s behalf, someone weaker or less equipped than you, then you have a responsibility to do that.”

I think of how often she fed people, took people in, or how she took care of her patients in her job as a nurse, especially quietly explaining to our young parish priest, why he was not only wrong, but defying God,  when he admonished her, saying that she should not be caring for AIDS patients back in the 80s.

When I write those final lines, I don’t want to think I wish I’d had more courage. 

Make art about daily acts of courage, about being willing to defy expectations or criticism to do what you think is right. 

Fountain pen writing courage

 

 

 

Tag Cloud