Guest Author - Angela England
April 30th- April is appropriately the National Kite Months - perhaps because it is often associated with gusty, windy weather. To me, when I think of kite flying I think of the song from Mary Poppins, "Let's Go Fly a Kite" and how desperately the children in that movie wanted to spend time with their father. For them, kite flying represented taking time to just BE. Together. What did you do this past month to just be? Did you do that together with someone else? Or do you still need to take the time to treat yourself this month? You have a day left!
May 1st - May Day celebrations are happening today with dancing, maypoles and outdoor parties. May Day traditions are hard to pin down to a specific origin, but most authorities agree the celebrations are designed to celebrate new life, flowers, trees, or the "great outdoors" in general. Historically, even teachers would get into the fun by taking their school children "maying" - outdoors for adventures and exploration outside.
When is the last time you celebrated something with sheer delight and abandon like a child? Picture children dancing around a maypole with flower crowns, tumbling the grass out of the pure joy of being outdoors after a long winter.
May 2nd - Thinking about yesterday's May Day prompt, I want to move it from a physical remembrance, to an emotional, internal question. Sometimes when we have time of bitter cold winter emotionally, we need a May Day type celebration in our spirits as well. Have you experienced this cycle in your emotional or spiritual life?
For me this came during a physical illness in college - I was withdrawn, weak, apathetic - almost hibernating emotionally. While the turn-around awakening happened gradually, much as early spring does, that is the year I got engaged to my husband. Even though we'd been together for many years, that affirmation of "for better or for worse" when I was not one hundred percent, helped me feel more like my old self again.
May 3rd - "I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against in - but we must sail, and not drift, or lie at anchor." ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
What direction are you moving in today? Are you sailing with the wind? Against the wind? Floating aimlessly adrift? Or stuck immovably at anchor?
May 4th - Look back at your answer from yesterday - are you pleased with where you are right now? Why or why not?
May 5th - Looking back at yesterday's answer consider the following - If you're not pleased with where you are heading, what would you need to change, in order to change your direction if that's what needs to happen? If yes, who currently supports you in the direction you're moving?
May 6th - "I won't give up the diary again. I must hold on here, it is the only place I can." ~ Franz Kafka
What do you most appreciate about your journal?
Stop by the forums and share the answers to your journaling prompts if you want.
