I thought I’d mix things up a bit and decided to take a 6-week writing class. The format of the class is simple: a writing prompt is presented, we take fifteen minutes (give or take) to write, and then we read what we wrote. Comments and questions are welcome. There’s no critique.

I struggle to write on command. I’m a lazy writer who waits for the muse to strike and when she doesn’t moves on to others things on the ‘to do’ list. And so this class is tickling my brain in new ways. In good ways. 

One of yesterday’s prompts – a poem by Langston Hughes – tickled this:

The sun slipped behind the moon. It seems so simple as I write the words: the sun slipped behind the moon. And in that moment – that singular moment – spirit was made visible. The universe became a sanctuary of peace. The banter of strangers and the rhythmic click of camera lenses being attached to tripods and trained toward the Australian dawn stopped. Just like that. Everything stopped. Birds called on one another, confused. Sandy termite mounds turned red in the changing light. The air fell on my skin cool and moist. At least I think it did. And then the sun slipped out from behind the moon and we took our first new breath. I expected my life to be different after witnessing the infinite. That perfect black hole in the sky. But it was an illusion. I forgot. It was only the moon. It was the moon all along.

It’s not faux humility that has me admitting the obvious: this is not award winning writing. But it’s something. Something that made me think and process an event that happened almost a decade ago (which seems unbelievable to me).

Things are shifting. Changing. More of my friends and acquaintances are receiving vaccines. But it’s not over and we will have to balance solitude and hope in our hearts for a wee while longer.

So – twelve months in – what are you doing now to challenge yourself that you weren’t doing a year ago?