Allrighty oh! It’s PROMPTuesday again!
Time to rev your writing engines. Lube your brain. Check your filter at the door.
(What?
I don’t know.
I just blog here).
OK. For your background and historical reference, here is a primer on PROMPTuesdays.
And here is the first PROMPTuesday exercise from last week.
And now, without further ado, or musings on vehicular upkeep, here is the next PROMPTuesday prompt:
In the spirit of TED, an annual conference that challenges the world’s most influential thinkers to give the talk of their lives in just 18 minutes, write an inspirational “speech” in 150 words. Speak to any audience you want: an unborn child, college grads, the elderly, the dying, your younger self, whoever. You can make this silly, serious, sad, angry, scary. Anything goes.
And again a few reminders: DON’T second guess your work. No head games on yourself. Just write whatever springs to mind and go for it.
So when you can today, set a timer for 10 minutes and write whatever pops into your brain. Keep in mind the 150-word limit. Then post your work in your blog, or in the comments below.
When you’re done with all that, pay a visit to Mr. Linky below and write your name and the link where we can find your post.
That’s all! Let’s do it!
Here’s my submission:
(To my children)
Be who you are. Don’t waste time wanting to be anything else. Too many hours, days, years, lives are spent comparing, coveting, wishing away. Grow into yourself, let yourself be. Spend your life becoming you. Take delight in the mistakes, because they whittle you into a better person. Be a grand failure if you must, because it means you tried. I don’t know how to describe success anyway.
And while you’re thinking about how to be a success, you’re holding yourself up to some benchmark that someone else created.
I don’t want you to think too much. I want you to think, yes, but sometimes going over a thing again and again makes you immobile and fearful. Try to overcome hesitancy and dive right in. If your intentions are true and your heart is good, you’ll pop to the surface a better person. Wish each other well as I wish you. And you’ll have found your way.
OK, so that read like one of those long inspirational posters. But you get the idea? Anything goes and don’t edit. It’s the mantra of PROMPTuesdays.
PROMPTuesdays is zen like that.
I can’t wait to see what you write.
Be a grand failure if you must, because it means you tried.
I love that line! I think I need to recite it to myself — daily.
Remember, younger Jamie, when you had to have all the answers all the time? You wanted to know what you’d do, who you’d be, where you’d live, who would be by your side. You wanted to know how many children you would have, what their names would be, what they looked like. You wanted to know what your home would look like on the inside, the outside, even inside the cupboards.
All that wanting. All that time wasted on trying to be a soothsayer. The future is foggy for a reason. The future is doubtful for a reason. The future is uncertain for a reason. The reason is LIFE. Life brings its richness and answers in the details. And the details are worth waiting for.
Today, as you wish to know all that is coming, please pause. PAUSE. Look around. Knowing what is to come would take the excitement out of the game. PAUSE AGAIN. It’s coming. It looks fine. Wait for it. Enjoy RIGHT. NOW. It won’t come again. And if you spend your *now* wondering about the *later* well, then it’s a shame.
Be patient.
Be patient.
I cheated. Just a little. But yeah. Read. And then Act.
okay, i’m going to. i think i am. no, i will. for sure. probably. no, yeah, i will. what did you say about second guessing yourself?
i’m going to email mine to you… because i only have 10mins before i go to bed.
Okay. My speeches came out more spiritual than I intended. Which I find interesting. Maybe that is a reflection of my true self?
I also cheated on the prompt. I wrote two. I posted my second one on my site and Mr.Linky. I will post the other one here in the comments. For some reason, I have always wanted to write a speech to the folks at my funeral, so that is what I did in the first one. it is sort of inspirational.
To the folks at my funeral:
Please don’t spend many tears thinking about me after I am gone. Rejoice, because I am in heaven dancing with Jesus! I am with God for eternity enjoying my house made of brownies. I got to eat out my windows. I don’t know why I have always wanted that.
I hope that you will remember me as a generous and fun person to be around. I always want to be encouraging.
I want to be remembered as a Jesus Lover. Someone that served the Lord in any way that He called. Daniel and I have always prayed that we would be more effective for the Kingdom of God together, rather than separate. I pray that my life reflected our goal.
Please remember the good times and don’t be sad. Mourn and move on. That is what I want. I have even given my husband permission to re-marry.
I have long ago said that I wanted to be cremated and spread in a river or the ocean. If you want to visit after I am gone, go to that beautiful place that I was spread and think of God’s beauty in nature. Don’t be sad.
(Inspirational speech to my friend, Katie. And no, this parenthetical is not part of my word count.)
You’re always saying, I’m not a photographer or How can I be a good photographer or Really, you’re a better photographer than I am. And to this I say: Grrrrrrl! Have you seen the photos you’ve taken lately?
Look, I know I’m no one to say but I’m saying it anyway. You are talented. Your shit’s hangin’ on my dining room wall, for Chrissake, right above a hair grease stain that rubbed off when Ruby was having a time out a while back and she cried with her head against the wall and begged to see “the children!” Of course, she’s referring to the children you snapped in Uganda that now hang on my dining room wall. Of course, her wails were compelling. But I said, No you may not see the children, you’re having a time out.
So there. If you don’t believe me, believe my two year old.
these are such incredibly insightful pieces! this line speaks to me: Take delight in the mistakes, because they whittle you into a better person.
When you bring a new puppy into your home, experts recommend that you crate train, both for your own sanity and for the puppy’s sense of security and well-being. The puppy has a small, safe space that it can consider home, and it can retreat to it when all the new sights and smells and experiences being absorbed by its little brain become too much. Gradually, you introduce the puppy to different rooms of your home as it begins to feel more comfortable. It’s amazing to watch. Each new room is a thrill and a surprise for the teeny little creature. You can see as it’s stimulated by new experiences, how it changes and learns to become a part of your household, part of your own microcosmic community and a good puppy citizen.
I think it is safe to say, that we have all explored virtually every nook and cranny of our own homes (with perhaps the exception of the spider-infested crawlspace underneath). But really, that depends on what you consider home. Is your house your home? Your state? Your nation? Your planet?
How much of your HOME have you really explored?
I keep seeing alarming (to me) statistics about how only between 10 and 20 percent of Americans will ever own a passport in their lifetime. The statistics are even more shocking when you find out 80% of us (probably the same 80%)spend our entire lives within 20 miles of where we were born. I looked up some numbers before writing this (CHEATER!). The land surface of the planet is a bit over 57 million square miles. Of that, North America takes up just over 9 million, about 16%. The entire US? 3.7 million (6%). Bringing those numbers back into our own sanctuaries, 6% of the average new home built in the US today can be represented by about a 10 by 12 foot bedroom.
So I ask again, how much of your home have you really explored?
It’s time to step out of your crate.
Oops! I totally blew the word count. I didn’t even remember their was a word limit until I read Aaryn B.’s comment. I guess that makes me a double-cheater for fact checking before I wrote, too.
“There”. I didn’t realize “there” was a word limit. Sad to think that I was an English major in a former life. . .
i’m still going to. probably.
no, for sure.
To myself . . . (150)
We are not them. We are us. They would dwell meekly in a fortress on a hill. We would rather go with beasts and roam the flat savannah. They would know the warmth and safety of the hearth; we the cold and sting of winter’s bite. They would scurry to the shadows; we would chase the light.
We are not the kind who cash our checks on time. We bend ourselves to the hard work of now and put off until tomorrow what riches may come. We knot our forearms and lean our backs against the levers of the cruel machine. We slow the turn of inevitability and live today as though it were all days in one and when night comes, we thirst for dawn. We were born unto ourselves.
There is them, there are us and there is me. You, you yourself . . . you are me.