Hello everyone and welcome to the weekly writing prompt.
Words mean things. They are the creative force that powers the whole of civilisation. And the definitions of those words help anchor us in a present social and cultural context. When we are delving deep into our psyche hoping to uncover profound insights about who we are, and why we do the things we do, it often helps to remember that we will use words to describe what we find. Having a good understanding of our personal definition of those words is essential because they are not necessarily the same for everyone!
So have fun, enjoy the process and write heaps.
When we start at the beginning of our life we must first define what beginning means to us. Is it the moment of your birth? Or is it the moment of conception? What if you it was when you first recognised yourself as ‘you’?
The beginning necessarily takes account of so many things that may define our life up to the point we have now arrived.
My beginning is the moment of birth and the forceps delivery that I only learned about when I had treatment from a cranial osteopath. I was initially sceptical, after all, it’s the sort of thing I assumed would have come out as a family anecdote; but when I asked Ma, she confirmed it.
There are many things I could say about the effect of a forceps delivery on my particular skeletal structure, the only one that matters is that I didn’t know and I feel this as a peculiarly personal slight. There was something about myself I was not privy to, except in the most abstract of ways.
The Prompt
In last week’s writing prompt, I encouraged you to reflect on the stories that attract you in the hope they might give you insight into your own internal and external dramas and experiences. Today, I would like to ask you to consider the moment of beginning for you with a first-line prompt.
What is important about your beginning? Is it something in the past, such as the moment of birth? Or is it a new beginning, in the present moment? Does it resonate with the ‘you’, you think you are, or not? Does it explain anything about yourself? There are so many questions you could start with but first, we must start with the definition.
As usual, you can approach this prompt practically with yourself in mind, or from the perspective of a character - human, animal or mineral. And remember, you never know where today’s prompt may take you in the future!
Here is the first line:
In the beginning …..
My effort will be added to the comments later.
As a coach, mentor and counsellor I work with a wide variety of people on very different journeys. Some, hope to write a best seller, others want to be healthier and happier. Each has a unique way of undertaking their personal hero’s journey. If you would like to start your transformative journey you could begin by working with me. To find out more head over to my website by clicking the button below.
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With love, light, and laughter
Linda
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In the beginning was the humming. At least according to my mother and she has the photographs to prove it (so she says).
I was born on board a ship heading east, away from the land in which she was birthed, towards a new and uncertain future in the land of her newly-fledged husband. The hum of the ship’s engines was the only thing, she says, that kept her sane during the 36 hours it took for me to finally appear in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, belonging to no country but the sea.
She says I was determined to be ‘of no fixed abode’ even then. And she has been pretty much proven right ever since!
In the beginning was the word and the word was "enough". Enough trying to be what you all wanted me to be. Enough KPIs and pointless reports. Enough trying to do the job instead of meeting the targets. Enough early mornings and late nights and not enough respect. Enough commuting half-way across the country for meetings that mostly didn't matter. Enough paperwork. Enough watching the ethos sink under money-matters, when it should have been service, when it should have been people. Enough forgetting what the point was, and should still have been. Enough, enough, enough.
In the beginning was the sentence and the sentence was "Here with my resignation." Because I had stopped being resigned to it all. I woke up to the fact that I cared and you didn't, or not enough to make the difference that needed to be made. And so I walked away.
In the beginning I had a plan, and the plan was upended. My new beginning was not the one I had in mind. My new beginning sent me reeling in a different direction entirely. This beginning, might not be "the" beginning, but it is the one that has brought me to my home and my soul work and so really, it is the true beginning, the one that actually matters most.