PROMPT: Lesson

Daily writing prompt
Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.

Few things in life matter as much as they feel they do. Almost nothing is perilous, while many things feel as though they are. Don’t let illusory feelings keep one from living boldly.

Or, as the Epicureans liked to say, “What is painful is easy to endure.”

PROMPT: Foods

Daily writing prompt
What are your favorite types of foods?

Those that are authentic to wherever I am at the moment. [Nothing fancy, but with nutritional value.]

PROMPT: Traveled from Home

Daily writing prompt
Share a story about the furthest you’ve ever traveled from home.

”Home” and “away” lost all meaning long ago, becoming a false dichotomy. “Furthest” is likely presumed to mean the most distant in space, but that is not always the greatest mental distance. Sometimes a place changes while you were away, and that shift through time becomes the most jarring distance.

PROMPT: Ideal Home

Daily writing prompt
What does your ideal home look like?

Big enough to live in it; small enough not to live for it.

Preferably, it teleports on a regular basis, so I don’t have to — you know— live in one place for the rest of my life.

PROMPT: Habit

Daily writing prompt
What daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?

I poop. Surely, I would have exploded in my youth if I hadn’t developed the habit. I feel my quality of life as a human must be better than the quality of life of gut bacteria in wall-spattered fecal matter. At least I have the leisure and capacity to contemplate such things.

PROMPT: Motivates

Daily writing prompt
What motivates you?

When tigers chase, I run. When sunsets glow, I sit and watch.

PROMPT: Sell

Daily writing prompt
If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?

Experiences and lessons.

PROMPT: Change

Daily writing prompt
What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world?

If I can spark the occasional smile of amusement or trigger a line of thought once in a while, that’s enough. In the long run, it’s all dust. (That latter commentary was more on the thought-provoking than the amusing side of the equation.)

PROMPT: Expensive Meal

Daily writing prompt
What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?

I can’t remember, but it’s never been worth it. Seems like the more one pays for a meal, the hungrier one leaves it. Enjoy your “foam reductions” if you like, but it’s not for me. I’ll take street food any day — cheap, filling, flavorful street food. It’s got character and doesn’t try too hard.

My palate may be unrefined, but — also — I’m no sucker.

PROMPT: 30 Things

Daily writing prompt
List 30 things that make you happy.

1.) love; 2.) a glorious turn of phrase; 3.) discovery; 4.) walking; 5.) swimming; 6.) stumbling upon an interesting and / or novel idea; 7.) movement; 8.) travel; 9.) street food; 10.) quiet; 11.) health; 12.) recognition that when things are at their very worst, they must get better — because everything is impermanent; 13.) an intense stretch; 14.) Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass;” 15.) undiscovered country; 16.) the hanging moment; 17.) a mystery-laden world; 18.) a moment of flow; 19.) a mountain path; 20.) a clear stream; 21.) the way of non-adversariality; 22.) a thing stripped to its simplest form; 23.) the moment breath turns the tide; 24.) animals being animals; 25.) a brief instant of free fall; 26.) the recognition that something that used to cause me angst or fear no longer does; 27.) when body, movement, and the world fall into alignment; 28.) first contact with someplace / something new; 29.) connection; 30.) the first sign that the struggle is paying off.