PROMPT: Grow

Posted on March 2, 2025 by B Gourley

What experiences in life helped you grow the most?

The ones that involved repeated non-catastrophic failures (e.g. martial arts practice.)

Also, the ones that confronted fears (e.g. open sea swimming.)

PROMPT: Ideal Day

Posted on February 4, 2025 by B Gourley

Daily writing prompt

Describe your most ideal day from beginning to end.

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Hiking in the mountains (at most, low- to mid-VHE [Very High Elevation].) Wake at sunrise, walk, pitch camp before sunset.

PROMPT: Scared

Posted on January 31, 2025 by B Gourley

What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?

Going to a cocktail party with no one I know in attendance. FYI —Things that would generate less anxiety include: cage-fighting, gator-wrestling, skydiving, and (admittedly with the appearance of irony) giving a speech to a large audience.

A battle-hardened phalanx with pointy sticks.

PROMPT: Family Traditions

Posted on January 26, 2025 by B Gourley

Write about a few of your favorite family traditions.

The Festivus Day Airing of Grievances.

Arbor Day Eve’s Trimming of the Shrubbery.

Goat Wrangling on the Third Thursday of September.

PROMPT: Leisure Time

Posted on January 25, 2025 by B Gourley

Daily writing prompt

What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

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That’s trickier than it seems. I quite enjoy reading and many forms of bodily movement activities (e.g. swimming, yoga, taiji, qigong, exercise, etc.,) but I’d count them more as personal development activities than leisure activities. (Even something as seemingly non-purposeful as juggling.) I sometimes watch TV / movies, but I don’t know that I’d say I enjoy that so much as find it an opportunity to zone out.

PROMPT: First Day

Posted on December 13, 2024 by B Gourley

Tell us about your first day at something — school, work, as a parent, etc.

I can’t say I have strong recollections of any of them. I have a vague recollection of the flight to basic training (first time flying, but mostly I remember there was a drunk dude sitting next to me,) but I don’t recall anything from my first day in the military proper. No first days of school or on any job have stuck.

I guess my clearest memory is for the most recent major first — first day living in Bangalore, India (a little over eleven years ago.) I must say, however, I just remember snippets of being lost in a walk around the neighborhood. One might expect a first day in urban India to be daunting / overwhelming- even for a reasonably well-traveled Westerner, but if it was I don’t remember that bit.