Five quick and powerful midway prompts

Plus a sort of round-up of good reads

Hey,

So the Summer Solstice happened. Perhaps you celebrated, perhaps you planned to but never got round to it, perhaps you have no idea what I’m talking about.

I envisaged swimming in a lake, getting up at 3am in the morning to watch the sun rise and journaling with a group of brilliant women. I only managed the last one (with the journaling group I run on here - which I absolutely love for keeping me pausing at regular points throughout the year, details of future sessions here).

No matter, it will happen with or without us.

But how about this mid-way point in the year? Surely it provides the perfect opportunity to check in with where we’re at? To consider our goals / dreams / intentions (whatever you like to call them) for the remainder of the year. Never mind January when we’re still seeing off bucket loads of roast potatoes and our body clocks are screaming “but it’s always NIGHT” when we try to insist on a new exercise regime. This is prime time for dreaming and growing. The nights are long (for now) and the opportunities are ripening.

I’ve shared a handful of writing prompts for those who aren’t big journallers but would like to hover around the half way point with some degree of interest.

I also realised that it’s been the longest time since I did a sort of ‘round-up’ post. So I’ve included some reading links that I’ve enjoyed recently.

Hopefully you might enjoy them too.

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Five Journaling Prompts for a mid-way mooch around ‘what next:’

1. If I was to find myself at the end of the year tomorrow, what would I be saying “argh shit, I never got round to xxxx and I really wanted to” about.

2. Write freely your answer to the question: How does it feel to be in the middle of the year? Keep writing even when you think you’ve run out of things to say, remember that the magic will often reveal itself slowly.

3. Now, look back over that writing, was it mainly from an individual perspective? I know mine was. So try switching up ‘I’ to ‘we’ when you write about the mid-year point. How are ‘we’ doing right now? Where could ‘we’ make a difference? Who is that ‘we’ - well that’s for you to decide. But we don’t live or survive in this world alone.

4. Flick to the middle page of a book and see what you find. I like to do this with a poetry book (course I do). In fact, the poem I landed on at the weekend (in our Summer Solstice journaling session) was SO perfect it gave me goosebumps. But it doesn’t have to be poetry. Use a cookbook and commit to trying out whichever recipe you land on. A colouring book, likewise (with pens though, don’t cook with one of those). A fiction book and just see if there is anything there for you. Anything you were needing to hear? Write about that.

5. Celebrate something you are in the middle of doing. Yes, yes, it’s lovely to do a big hurrah when that room is finally decluttered but I kinda think you need the shout out when you’re midway through and regretting your life choices with even starting the damn thing (just me?) Can we recognise and be more honest about our messy middles please? Write about some of those.

   For the record I am in the middle of writing a kids poetry book and we are in the middle of decorating our upstairs hall (have been for over a year, thank you, thank you). You never know, it might just help you figure out what you need to do next to get a project over the finish line, OR where actually you’ve fallen out of love with ‘a thing’ and need a re-route.

And this bonus one isn’t technically a journaling prompt but it made me happy and I am here for anything that provides a glimmer of joy currently:

Hide something in ‘a middle’ that will make someone smile. Like a message for one of your kids in the middle of a sandwich. Or write a letter to yourself and leave it in the middle of a book on your TBR pile. A five pound note (spenny, maybe a pound) in the middle of two seats on the train. I dunno, in the middle of your next two boring logistical voice notes (again, just me?) send something surprisingly delightful.

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Poetry:

This is poem I wrote this past week about the sorts of friendships where you speak non-stop for the full hour that you’re together and it makes you feel ALIVE. If you can’t click on the image above, it is also on IG here. Here’s to these sorts of friendships, I can’t get enough.

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Parenting:

This post below by Grace O'Neill on the publication

So Darling

is honestly one of the most beautifully articulated and well-written pieces on motherhood I’ve read for a long time. Writing about the heady days of early motherhood “I am seized by the horrifying notion that the mind I have spent three decades lovingly nourishing is suddenly slipping through my fingers,” through to the portrayal of motherhood in art and the positive experiences which are equally often missed, “motherhood has the unexpected benefit of helping one better conceptualise time.” Grace O’Neill writes, “Being a mother is subversive and scandalous.”

Just brilliant writing, hard recommend on this one.

Dispatches from Motherhood

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Other Stuff:

• This post on IG did bring a smile, Good News You Might Have Missed from @girlswhotalkpolitics. Contrary to the very real and awful news currently, there are some changes to feel good about. Not least the first ‘Women Only Tower Block’ opening in London next year.

  girlswhotalkpolitics

  

  A post shared by @girlswhotalkpolitics

• Making a ‘summer to do list’? I’m planning to and this post by

  Piera Luisa Gelardi
  gave me some good ideas to get started.

• If you aren’t already reading everything by

  Jameela Jamil
  on here then can I recommend that you do. She is simply incredible. This post about her interview with the daughter of Gisele Pelicot is so important.

• I just finished and LOVED this book, All Fours by

  Miranda July

  This quote by Dolly Alderton sums it up,

  “I thought I was reading about middle age, then I thought I was reading about menopause, then motherhood, then sexuality, then monogamy, then marriage. And by the final page I realised I was reading about existence and death and I couldn't stop crying. Plus it's so funny and it's so horny.”

  Kinda mind blowing and crazy and just brilliantly written.

• And finally, stickers, badges and tote bags bought from The Palestine Solidarity Campaign this month. They are a grassroots organisation who spend the money on lobbying government and organising protests. I can recommend if you want to show your support, maintain awareness and donate to an organisation working on the ground for change.

  

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  Do let me know if you plan to try the journal prompts, or if you did anything fancy for the summer solstice / reviewing the mid year point.

  Or just say hello. You know I’m here for that too,

  Nelly x