Breathing (and Writing!) a Slightly Different Life into Your Gratitude Practice

Read on to discover how to use your gratitude lists (or whatever terminology you us) as writing prompts...There were many posts at the end of 2012 about making a 2012 jar filled with gratitudes or… I’m not sure what words people were using. I thought it was a cool idea but I also knew I would fill it up quickly… so I took a slightly different tactic.

 I made a jar for Delights… for January 2013 and I plan to make jars for each month after this one. I might use different words, too. Blessings, Treasures, Unexpected Loveliness… whatever tickles my  fancy that month.

AND! To make it a useful project year round, when I am stumped for something to write (like I was tonight) I pulled out an earlier delight as my writing prompt topic.

So away we go…. I will now demonstrate, doing a complete stream of consciousness writing piece based on the delight I pluck out and it is……

 

<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Instant Writing prompt: pull a paper from the jar....</span>

Instant Writing prompt: pull a paper from the jar....

I am one of those friends my friends believe they can call at 4 am and call and talk for an hour and I wouldn’t mind. They are right.

 

I am also one of those friends that will drive her friend who is about to be Grandma to San Francisco and back from Bakersfield on New Year’s Day with maybe… an hour warning the birth was imminent.

I packed a pair of socks, an extra sweater and some panties and a tooth brush and off I went. I showered, but other than that, I was just me. I knew I couldn’t miss this moment.

 

Fairy God Auntie (or something like that) Julie holds the baby.

The drive from Bakersfield to San Francisco is about five hours. I was tired when I started. We were flying on adrenaline when we arrived at the hospital with the new baby. Both Grandma’s and I had time holding her.  I even texted some of my friends in Bakersfield and said, “They left me alone with the baby!”

 

Do you remember being alone in a room with a baby?

It is like being alone in a room with the most magnificent miracle ever and you are the only one holding onto the secret. It was fantastic.

We were there a couple hours when we decided we better find a place to say. This concerned me because since I didn’t pack, I managed to forget my bank card and other important things. I was completely dependent on my friends, minus about thirty dollars in cash I carried in my car.

We found a questionable place to stay between Russian and Nob Hill but had to wait half an hour before we could go into our room. There, on the corner, was a bar called Shanghai Kelly’s. We simply had to go in. One of the Grandma’s was named Kelly, so I felt like we didn’t have a choice. Oh, and the "questionable" place to stay turned out to be wonderful. We found it in one of those travel saver books you get at rest stops along

Grandma Kelly spends New Years Night at Shanghai Kelly's.

the highway.

 

How often do you find yourself in one of the most fabulous places in the city at a corner bar outside of the tourist traps that happens to share your name?

We each took a seat at the bar and because I am one of those people who talks to bartenders, I couldn’t help but ask about the Obamarama drink they offered for only $3. He told us what was in it – sounded tasty beyond belief, and then when he heard about the Grandma’s he turned away for just a slice of a moment and put Obamarama shots in front of each of us.

Down they went, silky smooth.  Kelly even got a t-shirt and we learned the lore of Shanghai Kelly. I got the name of the neighborhood – Polk Gulch – and was thrilled beyond belief to spend my New Years Day in San Francisco and receive a tasty free drink and know that I could rely on my friends for everything I needed while we were jetting around the city in my Mazda.

 

Van Ness - Walking the Streets of San Francisco

The next morning I was the first one up. I couldn't imagine sleeping in when I was in San Francisco. The Grandma's got to rest and I got to sit in a Pete's coffee writing poetry and people watching. I stopped my walking when I was four blocks from the hotel. I could have walked on and on and on.

 

It might sound completely zany, but I can’t think of a better start to 2013. Naturally, it was a delight I had to add to my jar.

And now, thanks to being stumped for a writing idea – hopefully you are delighted in sharing my delight.

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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

 

 

 

This is my eighteenth post (of 31!) for the January Ultimate Blog Challenge. Watch here for challenge posts which will include Writing Prompts, Writing Tips and General Life Tips and Essays.