Journal Prompts #7: On Relationships
What feels like life source and what feels like life support?
Grab a journal. Even if you think you don’t want to or it feels hard, I promise it will deliver. Pen to paper, it is old school, it is nostalgic, it is something to see the ink or that pencil meet the page, it it not nothing and that is something these days.
Tony Toni Tone is playing in the background as I write to you, ‘Anniversary’ is playing and the gray skies are just pouring rain here today. It doesn’t feel dreary though.
I haven’t told Chris yet but we are going to a local gastropub and bowling alley for trivia night to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. He will be skeptical upon arrival and then get really, really into it as his competitive streak is real. I am sure some random human will strike up conversation and by chance they were neighbors in their youth or something crazy. And then I will start warming up and getting strikes and he will get all frustrated and blame this random cut on his finger for his temporary lapse in athletic skill. He will still win because his competitive streak is real and over the years, mine is almost gone. I will relish in the few frames I dominated and we will laugh at how time isn’t real because we just started dating yesterday, right?
In actuality, I have been with Chris for over 13 years and loved him even longer than that. And it gives me pause today to ponder relationships, all relationships, and the resilience within them and the promises we make and break and keep. I ponder even more the agility and energy to honor and withstand change, the choice to let go and knowing what we need and offer within each relationship.
Let’s journal about it.
Grab a pen, I highly recommend old school pen to paper sans tech here:
Take a look at relationships that exist in your life today. These can be friends, a lover or lovers, pets, plants, technology, with Earth and with your self. You may have many or few. You may be in a state of transition or navigating a void with your relationships. Or you may feel absolutely content. Ask now, how do my relationships feel in my life?
What if we were to liken relationships to an inhale and exhale? Where in your life are you breathing in and where are you breathing out? Who in your life feels like an inhale, giving you energy and life source? And who in your life feels like an exhale, where you give energy and life support? Neither are right or wrong, truly necessary are both when in a sort of balance.
Can you pinpoint one person, place or thing that you are in relationship with? Consider a person or it could be the ocean or your email inbox. Go with whatever or whomever came to mind first. On the page in front of you, write them a letter. Anything that needs to be said, let it spill on the page now.
What do you need now in relationships? This could be a list of attributes you are seeking or know that work well in your life now. When you know, you can explore what you can be thankful for or perhaps, what you can request.
Okay that was VERY fun to read... in my relationship now, quiet steadiness is all I can ask for. What's nice is that I actually can ask, and somehow we always figure it out, a decade in. Thank you for these prompts. And wishing you heaps of strikes.