Today’s prompt: Write about a smell that brings a memory with it.
It has to be my parents’ favourite perfumes.
Dad: Polo Cologne
Mom: Sung by Alfred Sung
Tag: Letters' Lounge
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February 8, 2026: Kept Objects
Today’s prompt: Write about an object you’ve kept longer than expected.
I’m not a hoarder, but I definitely do keep things longer than I should. Right now, there’s a stack of at least 15 white t-shirts sitting on a shelf in my closet that I’ll never wear but can’t get myself to get rid of. Many are stained from being worn while I was woodworking, others don’t fit well, and the collars of some are wimpy. Will I really use them as rags?
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February 2, 2026: Remembered Differently
Today’s prompt: Write about something you remember clearly that others recall differently.
Isn’t this what’s at the heart of so many misunderstandings? I suppose, it’s the parts of an experience that we remember are different, even if the overall experience was the same. Or, is it that we remember all of the same parts but our perspective of them is different?
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Day 31 – Integration
Today’s prompt: What themes, lessons, or beginnings from this month are staying with you?
I want to continue with the daily writing prompts on Letters’ Lounge. It only occurred to me late in the evening today that tomorrow is February and that I hadn’t scheduled any writing prompts. I managed to get a few ready to go and will finish the rest over the next few days.
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Day 30 – Vision
Today’s prompt: What are you beginning to envision for yourself this year?
This is going to be a stretch…
I was looking at our bookshelf today, trying to pick out the titles that I’d read. There are seven shelves, each holding about 18 books, totalling approximately 126 books. If I were to read at the pace that I’m currently reading at, accounting for the titles that I’ve already read, I’d need about 50 years to finish reading what’s sitting there.
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Day 28 – Discovery
Today’s prompt: What have you recently discovered about yourself or your world?
I’ve had a pretty bad cold for a good few days now, so I’ve been at home. Being home, mostly unable to help, I had the opportunity to notice just how much Hannah does during the day with Emi. She doesn’t stop. There is always something else to do. Everything takes time, too. I don’t have the strength that she does.
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Day 24 – Curiosity
Today’s prompt: What are you curious about right now – even slightly?
I like to think of myself as an endlessly curious person. I think that knowing more can never be harmful. All of the knowledge you hold is a bank for you to draw from.
Right now, I’m most curious about Emi. I wonder what she sees and how she sees it, how and what she hears. We could go through all of the senses. I’m curious, too, to know if she knows who Hannah and I are. The world must be an amazing place for her.
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Day 22 – Time
Today’s prompt: How do you feel your relationship with time shifting?
Where does the time go? Seriously?
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Day 20 – Resilience
Today’s prompt: What has helped you rise or recover from challenge?
I’ve never really thought of resilience as a transformation, but what else could it be? It almost sounds like an Hegelian dialectic, that we must resolve the conflict within ourselves in order to continue, to be resilient.
This video is pretty good: https://youtu.be/xjQc9-yLB7g
This makes me wonder if we don’t have both the problem and the solution within us. Resilience would then become something that results in a transformation in ourselves through ourselves I suppose, that makes sense when you think that you can approach a problem in multiple ways and you can view it in a number of ways, as well. How we respond may then have an impact on the transformation that takes place.
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Day 19 – Belonging
Today’s prompt: Where – or with whom – do you feel most at home right now?
Just tonight, Hannah and I were talking about the influence of religion in Emi’s life. I was raised in a religious context, Hannah was not. I’m no longer practicing but there are certain aspects of the traditions that I still participate in. Navigating Emi’s inclusion in these small, infrequent practices will be interesting.
Ultimately, we want her to decide whether or not religion is right for her. With that, there’s the religious community membership. How do we expose her to something without pushing her into it? Can you “try” a religion?
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Day 18 – Mystery
Today’s prompt: What mystery are you living with – and how does it shape your days?
People confound me. I never can quite understand why people do what they do, especially when it comes to traffic, an interesting place because people feel isolated in their vehicles and act as such but are completely surrounded by other people.
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Day 17 – Surrender
Today’s prompt: What would it mean to stop resisting something in your life right now?
I wish I had more time to think about this prompt. At first blush, it would seem that there’s a lot I resist – the piece about a tension between control and trust rings true.
Surrendering something, giving it up, letting go, all seem like helpful ways to approach life. Willfully relinquishing control and thereby worry would be unburdening. I’m not mindful enough to allow for that at this point in my life.
It does offer the promise of freedom.