So… I’m doing this Reverb 10 challenge where we write one blog post a day for 30 days and it’s amazing and kicking my ass in the best possible way. I was really cooking – authoring post after post. And then, on day 9, they gave us this one:
- December 9 – Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans. (Author: Shauna Reid)
And I thought: Ugh, I hate parties. And I froze: Just as I have frozen before countless party doors in the past.
I tried to write it. But, “I’m too tired, too busy, bad cold…”
Which was when Binky woke up and said, “Write anyway!”
If you saw my post on the prompt: Make, you will remember that Binky is the guardian of my self esteem – the little voice that shows up when I am about to sell myself short, sell myself out or otherwise self-sabotage. Binky, in other words, is the voice of my soul.
I ignored his comment.
The next day I wrote a pretty decent post on Wisdom – and I did it with only one hand as the other was occupied with holding Binky underwater.
Then, yesterday, I skipped another prompt: Body Integration.
I was also much too busy to read anyone else’s posts about that ‘fascinating’ subject. I was too busy to attend yoga for the second week in a row or to visit my father, who happens to have a condition that is twisting his entire body into a pretzel… on top of the cerebral palsy he’s had all of his life. But that has nothing to do with my reluctance to write – or think about – Body Integration.
Binky bit my finger, hard
But I prevailed, subduing him with the quick half-nelson I’ve been perfecting since high school – another time, by the way, when I didn’t much want to think about Body Integration.
I went to bed.
And then, today, I woke up to today’s prompt: Action, which, technically, I have not skipped because, well, here’s the post.
Oh, I tried to skip it…
But that was before Binky staged his brilliant escape. First, he rallied his friends, the truth, this mirror and a couple of pesky angels, and together they dropped a house on that hand and got away.
Ouch!
But also: Okay. Fine!
I mean, I get it: The prompts that we skip tell a story, too. I mean, I teach this. I know this. It’s the gift of the shadow- the wisdom hidden in the things that we avoid.
So, what is the story of these three prompts I’ve skipped?
Um… I don’t know.
But there’s something there – something big and real and important moving just under the surface of my skin.
That’s why, for the rest of this challenge, I’ll be listing the prompts that I skip.
I’ll come back to this post and list them here.
Themes will emerge – and a pattern will form. As it does, I will share it with you.
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Want to play along? Here’s an extra-credit challenge.
- What prompts have you skipped? What prompts have annoyed, enraged, bored or upset you? What story do these prompts tell?
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The prompts that I’ve skipped:
- December 9 – Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans. (Author: Shauna Reid)
- December 12 – Body Integration This year, when did you feel the most integrated with your body? Did you have a moment where there wasn’t mind and body, but simply a cohesive YOU, alive and present? (Author: Patrick Reynolds)
- December 13 – Action When it comes to aspirations, it’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. What’s your next step? (Author: Scott Belsky)
- December 14 – Appreciate. What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it? (Author: Victoria Klein)
- December 17 – Lesson Learned. What was the best thing you learned about yourself this past year? And how will you apply that lesson going forward? (Author: Tara Weaver)
- December 18 – Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it? (Author: Kaileen Elise)
- December 19 – Healing. What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011? (Author: Leonie Allan)
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Party?! I obviously do not live the life that most do.
Ha! Nor do I. Which is one of the reasons I skipped this one. But there’s more there. Why do I skip MOST parties? What am I afraid of? What am I avoiding?
A good & brave idea – tell Binky you’re doing the best you can. And also, maybe later, thanks.
I skipped the body integration one too. And *alomost* skipped the party one because I felt like I had already written about that at the time it happed (but I took a different spin and just talked about why I’m no good at parties usually instead of describing any specific party.)
Hmmm… there are a couple others. Maybe I should go back and look and see which ones they were again.
I loved the different ways people handled this one – especially liked Mrs. Mediocrity’s take on it, her own private tea party.
I almost skipped the Party prompt ~ but then decided to write about my Introverted, Hermit Self instead. Which, funny enough, allowed other Introverts to step forward – and participate in the prompt too. Amazing how late in life we can discover this truth about ourselves.
Okay, so – I’ve skipped 4 prompts so far. And have told myself that it’s a Time issue, knowing quite well that I could bundle them – as I’ve done once already with other prompts. I also know, underneath (I love the thought of you typing with one hand as you hold Binky’s head underwater. Annoying the perseverance of those inner conscience creatures, I know.), that there is a story behind what I’m choosing not to think about, or say.
I just went to the reverb site, here’s the prompts I’ve skipped:
December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?
December 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?
December 12 – Body Integration This year, when did you feel the most integrated with your body? Did you have a moment where there wasn’t mind and body, but simply a cohesive YOU, alive and present?
December 13 – Action When it comes to aspirations, it’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. What’s your next step?
December 14 – Appreciate What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?
Wow, I thought there were only 3! In total honesty, I feel I’ve ‘done Community’ and ‘Appreciation’ to death – and so let them go. Body Integration – I didn’t really want to think about. Hmmmm. Make? I don’t ‘make’ ~ a cop-out, I know. And finally – Action.
Looking at these right now, I think my struggle is that I’m a Contemplative at heart ~ which means, I spend perhaps too much time in my head. Which does not necessarily leave much energy flow for Making, Body Integration or Action.
While I’m feeling woefully behind in many areas ~ I will likely now MAKE time to INTEGRATE these three neglected prompts with the ACTION of a blended post.
I need to stop showing up in your posts where Binky is present. (Thank you.)
Oh, please don’t stop showing up! Binky and I love it when you come by. Here, have some tea. Cream? Sugar?
It’s brilliant that you nailed this.
I was thinking about it, too, and in fact that was the juice that often got me writing a response to a prompt when my first inclination was to bag it. The prompts I skipped absolutely tell a story. Usually a story I’ve told so much already on my blog that I couldn’t bear to dig into that territory again. But in one case a story that’s pretty illuminating – to me. Which I suppose, is the point of this whole #reverb10 thing anyway, right?
Thanks for your post, for articulating this, for making it concrete.
Thank YOU for this comment. I share that concern about having already discussed – to death – some things on my blog. But Im suspicious of myself when I take one look at a prompt and say, “No!” That’s a reaction, and it’s coming from fear, shame, self-doubt… something that doesn’t want to be felt or seen.
I’ve skipped body integration too and pondering today’s still.
I almost skipped the body integration thing but did post a small thing:
Cohesive me? Now THAT’S funny. Maybe every time I enjoyed that first catchup-dipped fry from Cloos’? You have got to be kidding, right? Maybe next year I’ll take a shot at it though. I probably just misunderstood the question. Oh, and by the way, shouldn’t it be “a moment when?” (a place where) — or was I just late to class that day and didn’t do my homework?
I also skipped MOMENT, which I have been thinking about for now 13 days and can’t define my year in a moment. And today’s about what I am most appreciate of, that might just be the one, too.
funny funny funny, your blog.
oh, and my blog about the party? A pity party with only me in attendance.
This is *such* an important observation. I said something similar in a tweet to reverb when they asked “what do you do when you cringe at a prompt?” I said “write your way through it” which is what I did with a few of them. But I’m having trouble with today’s prompt and skipped 11 things to cut out of 2011 and body integration. I think it’s a BIG story, something important, that I just can’t quite wrap my mind around yet . . .
Whoa, I’ve never thought of it that way before. That skipping a prompt might say something about me but you’re right. I joined this project late so I figured eh, I’ll just jump right in and get to the other prompts when I can. Oops. I need a Binky to kick my ass because that’s no excuse.
Thanks for the reminder!
I am sure you have a Binky. Everyone does.
I’m definitely avoiding the Letting Go prompt. I know what I need to write about, but it’s so scary and personal that I just don’t want to.
I’m definitely avoiding the Letting Go prompt. I know what I need to write about, but it’s so scary and personal that I just don’t want to.
Fascinating. Do you see how writing about the scary and personal thing would require letting go?
Brilliant post! I’ve skipped the same prompts as you, so far, and was thinking about how I should interpret that. I like how you’ve put it.
Worse though, now I’m ready to catch up on prompts and my blog is down due to a server issue. Boo. Feeling shut out of #Reverb 10 at the moment.
I started to write that 11 thing elimination one but have yet to complete it. 11 seems like such a high number! And Body Integration is sitting unwritten, also.
I WILL get to it. Just been so flipping busy!
(I am thinking I need a Binky, too. Maybe call her Punky… I would make her a purple character. Maybe I will do that this week-end on my way to writing about body integration. LOL)
Binky and Punky could have a playdate (which would distract them while we write! )
That’s really interesting about skipping the prompts. I’ve skipped many and I really didn’t want to. I just started getting so behind! Usually I felt like I needed more time to really write a compelling story about some of the prompts.
But for a couple, what I wanted to write was TOO personal. I just absolutely couldn’t put it out there. I’ve been working on being more open with blogging (heck, only been doing this for a few months!) but there are some things that are staying in my private journal. Sorry world, maybe one day….
Hmmm…much food for thought.
“Binky bit my finger, hard.” –Love it!!
I have skipped all of them since Friday–no others. I don’t have a computer on the weekend and I find I really get behind! Then today the shoulda, coulda one kind of got me down. I acknowledged this, though, and a whole other thought came out in a poem, unrelated (but probably related) to the prompts. I love what letting go does sometimes.
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