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A collection of 24 posts

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Writing Book Review: A Year in the Life by Sheila Bender

A Year in the Life: Journaling for Self-Discovery by Sheila Bender My rating: 3 of 5 stars I just finished working through a year of weekly journaling prompts from this book. When I bought it at a used booksale, I remember thinking that the prompts didn’t seem all that

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A Year in the Life, Week 52: Self-Reflection Week

Well, yesterday I finished working through the exercises in A Year in the Life. The final exercise was the last of four “self-reflection weeks” in which I gave myself feedback on my journaling. (You can see how the schizophrenic relationship with myself as both employer and employee began here.) I

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A Year in the Life, Week 51: Penultimate

On the second-to-the-last prompt in A Year in the Life, I was asked to write about something I was anticipating as my year of journaling came to a close. My anticipation was all around what my next writing projects would be! I’m really looking forward to devoting my Fridays

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A Year in the Life, Week 49: The Telephone

This week’s prompt from A Year in the Life was to write about the telephone. Seriously. The entry is supposed to start, “THE TELEPHONE …” Fortunately, I have very strong feelings about telephones, so this entry was easy for me. The telephone is the Great Disrupter. My relationship with the

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A Year in the Life, Week 45: Whistling (Saxophoning)

This week’s A Year in the Life exercise asked me to write about the role whistling, or humming, or playing an instrument, had played in my childhood. I wrote about my relationship with my saxophone, my first musical love. I don’t remember ever liking to play piano, or

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A Year in the Life, Week 42 - The Bridges of Madison County

This week’s exercise in A Year in the Life asked me to think of a place I had lived, and then to think of a feature that place was famous for, using “The Bridges of Madison County” as a title style guide. Although I was supposed to imagine that

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A Year in the Life: Valentine's Day

My A Year in the Life journaling book has prompts in the back for holidays, in addition to the regular weekly prompts. I decided to do the Valentine’s Day one, which was to imagine that Puck had sprinkled fairy dust on me so that in the morning I would

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A Year in the Life, Week 40: First You Have to Teach a Lesson

This week’s writing exercise in A Year in the Life prompted me to write about a time that “learning a lesson” was somehow connected to a secret that you kept. I wrote about learning to play guitar when I was 22. Perhaps I wanted to learn guitar since those

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A Year in the Life, Week 39: Self-Reflection Week

This week’s A Year in the Life Exercise was another … self-reflection week! Man, this is the last time I take a job where I have to undergo a performance review every three months. 😉 This one went better than the others, though. The exercise instructed me to start with my

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A Year in the Life, Week 36: Admonitions

This week’s A Year in the Life prompt asked me to reflect upon an admonition I remember hearing in my life. From my mom: “Don’t open the door for or go with anyone except Grandma, Amy, or Susan–even if they say I’m hurt or dead.” This

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A Year in the Life, Week 35: To Thine Own Self Be True

This week’s A Year In the Life exercise asked me to write a question I received often, and to answer it in various ways. I was definitely a very late bloomer when it came to romance (first kiss? 28), and for a long time, people (relatives, mainly) were waiting

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A Year in the Life, Week 33: Shopping

Today’s prompt from A Year in the Life was to write about a store you went to as a child. I didn’t write much about a particular store, but about my memories of shopping with my mom. I wrote for probably an hour, which is about twice as

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A Year in the Life, Week 31 - Your Perfect Opposite

This week’s prompt referenced the Griffin and Sabine books, which I meant to read once upon a time but which kind of fell of my radar. In particular, it talks about how the symbolism in Griffin’s letters implies that he is searching for his “perfect opposite” so he

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A Year in the Life, Week 29 - A Recipe

The prompt from A Year in the Life for this weekend was “a recipe” — that is, how do you put together something you know how to create well? It was ironic because I got this prompt when I sat down to write the night I finished my Once a Month

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A Year in the Life, Week 28: Each Side a Balance

Today’s A Year in the Life prompt asked me to take a common object and write about it alternating the lines, “I love you for …” “I don’t love you for …” I looked up, and there sat my water bottle, and a journal entry was born. My dear Water

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A Year in the Life, Week 27: Own a Place

This week’s A Year in the Life exercise was about “owning” a place. I wrote it while taking the Amtrak from Minnesota to Milwaukee for the Call To Action retreat. How strange that I always get these prompts that are very place specific when I am traveling. As I

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A Year in the Life, Week 26: Self-Reflection Week

Can you believe it? I feel like I Just posted my quarterly review yesterday, and it’s already time for my six-month review. It went all right, although I think I may have gotten a little too snarky to my boss near the end. Think she’ll keep me around?

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A Year in the Life, Week 24: This is a Story About ...

Although I’ve been keeping up with my Year in the Life journaling, the last two exercises, which I wrote while on my trip to Puerto Rico, were not especially inspiring. Now that I’m home, today’s exercise helped me crystallize the experience in Puerto Rico. I find I

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A Year in the Life, Week 19: Before and After

Yesterday’s A Year in the Life exercise was to write about a “before and after” experience. I wrote about getting married, which is the most recent dividing line in my life. Before I got married, I thought a part of myself would become lost, that I would be swallowed

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A Year in the Life, Week 14: A Walk in City, Town, or Village

I didn’t get a chance to post my Week 14 Year in the Life writing from August 2, because extra shifts at the library where I work have been eating away my precious writing Fridays. The prompt was to describe a walk in a place you went often (or

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A Year in the Life, Week 13: Quarterly Review

Last week’s A Year in the Life exercise was to give myself a quarterly review about my successes and shortcomings as a journal keeper, in direct response to my conditions of hiring at the beginning of this project. My supervisor and I 😉 pretty much see eye-to-eye on things, so

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A Year in the Life, Week Eleven: Prescience

This week’s exercise in A Year in the Life was to write about a word we’d learned from someone else, and the context in which we’d learned it. I wrote about the word prescient, which I learned from my best friend, Katrina. I was sitting at my

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A Year in the Life, Week 9: My Motto

Today’s “Year in the Life” exercise asked me to write a “motto” for my life right now. I went for the first thing that came to my mind (because these exercises are supposed to be about writing, right, and not sitting there thinking of what to write?) The first

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A Year in the Life, Week Five: Spring

Today’s exercise in A Year in the Life was to write about the current season. I waffled over whether May 31 should be considered spring or summer, and I went with spring. This was one of those exercises that had me writing until my hand got sore, which is