Prompt: Write about showing up.
All right, the prompt for today, July 17th, 2026, is write about showing up.
I think, if you’re anything like me, your head is running a mile a minute in every direction. I just can’t settle it.
I think I should adopt some sort of meditation practice quite seriously to help with this. For me, though, the biggest issue isn’t coming up with new ideas. It’s not a lack of concepts, or even figuring out how to learn new things. Today, with all the technology we have, that’s actually quite easy. Even ordering tools and materials—you can get almost anything you need right away.
That’s probably to my detriment. If it were harder to get things and harder to learn, I think I’d end up doing less. My mind might slow down a little. Unfortunately, I don’t have the self-discipline to create those limits on my own, and that’s something I need to work toward. Which brings me back to the meditation piece.
I think that’s really where character evolves: in discipline.
I was watching a YouTube video from the Victoria and Albert Museum, I believe, about a man in Japan who works with urushi lacquer. He harvests the sap from the trees and later uses the wood from those same trees in his work.
At the very end of the video, after they’ve shown his entire process—how he manages the forest, harvests the sap, fells the trees, and crafts his work—he says that this work is the foundation of his life.
That struck me.
Woodworking, and the work he does with urushi, is the foundation of his life. Everything else is built around it.
He’s not concerned with all the other paths he could take. I don’t think he’s dismissing them or refusing to see them. I think he’s simply grounded in the work that he does. It sustains him financially, emotionally, and intellectually.
That’s an amazing thing.
But I think the way he got there was through discipline. Through the continuous act of showing up.
To harvest the sap, the trees have to grow for about ten years. That means he spends ten years managing and caring for those trees before he gets anything back. Then he harvests the sap for several years before finally felling the tree and using the wood in his work. He leaves the stump in the ground, and new shoots grow from the roots to begin the cycle again.
It’s beautiful.
But it all starts with discipline. It starts with showing up every day for ten years before seeing any return.
I think that’s what I’m missing.
If my mind could put on a pair of blinders—if I could stay with one thing long enough for it to become the foundation of everything else—I think that would be incredibly helpful.
Much like this post, actually. It could probably have used some blinders too.
You can find this prompt, and many more, at Letters Lounge: www.letterslounge.com.
Of course, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this or any of the other prompts, so please leave a comment or a link to your blog or audio journal. I’d be glad to give it a listen.
All right, folks. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
This transcript was lightly cleaned up with the help of AI to improve readability while preserving the original voice and intent of the recording.
Leave a Reply