Daily Nourishment for June 4: Things Passed Down with Quotes and Guidance from Joy Harjo
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 40 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“I carried a sack of dreams from a starlit dwelling” - Joy Harjo
Pause.
Do two rounds of 4/7/8 breathing. Inhale for a count of four, hold your breath for a count of seven, and exhale for a count of eight. Then read “Granddaughters” by Joy Harjo.
Prompt.
Read this quote by Joy Harjo:
“When my mother passed, I inherited an iron cooking pot brought over on the Trail that belonged to her mother’s mother. Some of the most important stories are not in words, or in poems or other forms of speaking, but in objects of use and beauty. This cooking pot is one of the most potent stories I carry, made at the end of the century before last, one of many such pots used by Native people east of the Mississippi. The one that was passed through generations of women came to me from my mother. It tells of survival, of the labors of women who cooked, cleaned, and uplifted everyone with stories and songs. The pot is sitting at my feet while I am writing.” - Joy Harjo
Practice.
Set a timer for seven minutes and take notes in response to the quote and poem above and the questions below.
—Which meaningful objects can you see right now?
—Which objects hold some of your cherished stories?
—What has been passed down to you?
—What will you pass down to others?
—Which objects intersect with your writing practice and creativity?
Want More?
Read “More Pieces of Us”: A Quilt, Mental Illness, and Things Passed Down by Charlotte Donlon (An essay originally published at Catapult, which no longer publishes online essays.)
*
Become an SDW Insider and reserve your copyof Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life AND receive access to the All of Life Is the Writing Life Deep Dive online course—a preorder perk that explores how the mantra “All of life is the writing life” shows up in the Spiritual Direction for Writers book.
SDW Book Notes—A place for book preorder links, updates, resources, notes, and musings
Flourish Anyway with Rhythms, Rituals, & Retreats
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
*Please help us protect our intellectual property, our creative process, and the integrity of our work. Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment is covered under the Spiritual Direction for Writers® trademark. You are welcome to share this link with others, but any other use (written or spoken) is prohibited without written permission from Charlotte Donlon.