Seven Notebook Prompts For The Last Long Days
One prompt a day for the second week of August — small questions for the quiet before everything speeds up again.
The second week of August has a particular quality of light. The days are still long, but not as long as they were in June. The evenings arrive a little earlier. There is a small, honest ache in the air — not sad, exactly, but attentive. It is a good week to write.
These seven prompts are made for that week. One per morning. One honest sentence each. They are not designed to solve anything. They are designed to help you notice what a summer has done to you before the next season paves over it.
The seven prompts
- Monday — What is one small thing I am glad I did this summer?
- Tuesday — What did I learn about God in the heat of these last weeks?
- Wednesday — Who has been kind to me lately, and have I told them?
- Thursday — What am I secretly dreading about fall — and what would it look like to bring that to God today?
- Friday — What good habit do I want to carry from summer into September?
- Saturday — Where did I feel most like myself this year?
- Sunday — What is one prayer I want to pray every day for the rest of this year?
"One honest sentence, seven mornings in a row, is a small psalm of your own week."
A rule for the week
If a prompt asks a harder question than you're ready for, do not skip it. Write the sentence you can. 'I don't know yet' is a holy sentence when you write it before God on purpose. Notebooks are not for the answers you already have. They are for the answers you are still becoming.
"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
Psalm 90:12
By Sunday, you will have seven sentences. Read them slowly. They will tell you, quite honestly, what this summer has been for. Take that with you into September.