Journal prompts for the trying
These are prompts for the waiting, not for making the waiting productive. There is nothing here to track and nothing to optimize, only somewhere to put a month that is hard to describe to anyone who is not in it.
How to use these
Take one when you want it and leave the rest. Nothing here needs an answer, and a page that only says how today was is a whole entry.
This month, as it is
No dates to hit and nothing to count. The page is somewhere to put the month, not somewhere to run it.
- How are you today, before anything medical or practical?
- What is your body doing this month, in your own words?
- What was this appointment like, apart from what it was for?
- What are you afraid to hope for out loud?
- What has this week asked of you that nobody scheduled?
- What date is coming that you would rather skip, and what would make it easier?
- What did today feel like, before you knew anything?
- What would you like this month to be about, apart from all this?
Other people
The part that is hardest to say out loud, which is what a private page is for. Two things can be true at once here and usually are.
- What have people said lately that landed badly, however kindly meant?
- What are you tired of explaining?
- What do you need from the people close to you that you have not asked for?
- Whose news has been hard to hear, and can that sit alongside being glad for them?
- What do you wish you could say once and never again?
- Who is easy to be around at the moment, and why?
- How are you and the person going through this with you, if there is one?
- What invitation would you like to turn down without explaining?
You, underneath it
For the days when the practical side has taken the whole thing over. None of these are about the outcome.
- What would you say to a friend in your position, and can you say it to yourself?
- What is still good in your life this month?
- What has this taken from you that nobody sees?
- What is one thing you are looking forward to that has nothing to do with this?
- What would you like to remember about how you carried this?
- What have you been holding together, and for whose benefit?
- What would rest actually look like this week?
- What is yours that has nothing to do with any of this?
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