Recently, I heard an interview with Helen Prejean, the nun who wrote “Dead Man Walking.” She spoke briefly, yet with great conviction. The sentence that made me sit up and take notice was, “To know what I believe, watch what I do.”
Map of St. Eulalia Del Rio from http://tinyurl.com/23szhz9
A profound sentence. How often do we speak for compassion, but don’t act on it? How easy to point to a fault in someone and not see it in ourselves. How fast we are to make fun of someone else’s shape, clothes, job, car, career choice–because we are so unsure of our own life’s direction or success.
The sentence was a great one, and one that makes a wonderful journal prompt. I spent a timed five minutes writing, and was surprised where it took me. Try it for yourself and you’ll be surprised to find out who you are. How you show up in the world.
Quite often, the way we want to show up in the world, the way we really mean to, is not how others see us. They see the cracks and flaws. It’s not hiding them that fixes them, it’s living our heart out loud.
Some journal prompts that will wiggle the straight road of your journey:
- What three things do I want people to think about me? (For example: that I’m smart, that I’m an expert in my field, that I deserve a raise at work.)
- What one thing did I do today to make people think one of those things about me?
- What one action did I take to make one of the things I want come true? (Quite different from the previous action).
- How did I support someone else’s dream today?
- What did I do to become [smarter, an expert, a person worthy of a raise] tomorrow? (When today is past, we need to advance into a new day.
Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach and an art journaler. Her book, Raw Art Journaling, Making Meaning, Making Art will come out in July. It’s now available for pre-order.
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