Friday Freewrite Fifteen

* Google has this new feature. I press a button, and it adds links to the things I talked about in my freewrite. I love this!!! 

I have been "freewriting" 750 words a day on Penzu.com (a la Julia Cameron and The Artist's Way - she says three handwritten pages, but that is too much paper to use and have around. So, I have modified it.), but I do like to come here and freewrite every once in a while. 

I am reminded of the queen of freewriting, Julie Bogart of Bravewriter. Here is her explanation of it! She has cool prompts every Friday. So check that out too.

This is her writing prompt for today:

	Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Friday Freewrite: Rules of the Air Freewriting is that wonderful key that unlocks the writer within. Julie Bogart Feb 27 Today’s writing prompt: Everyone wakes up and can suddenly fly! Now you’re in charge of writing the official manual with rules for flying people. What would it include? Share your child’s freewrite in the comments if you’d like! (Or feel free to share your freewrite too!)

So here goes with my 15 minutes. Setting the timer now:

I don't usually write here. I miss that, but there is no question that I edit things here. When I am on Penzu, I am a true "freewriter"! This has been so good for my emotional growth because, as an Enneagram 2, I tend to "edit" my emotions. So, I am more raw with them in an intentional way when I write on Penzu. That is so healthy for me. SO SO GOOD!

There was something where someone took over something I had started on a text thread. Just blatantly took it over and started posting every day what I had started. She is many hours ahead of me. So, she would always "preempt" me in my posts by a day. So, I finally just had some honest conversation with the Lord about it, and I "let it go"! I worked through the many emotions that I would have stuffed, and then I was able to freely open my hand and say, "I can let her have it." 

I wish she had "read the room" that to me was quite obvious. I am disappointed that I was not able to share the things I wanted to with the generic publication that she was sharing, having no experience with the things talked about in the generic publication. I have personal interaction with most of the people the pages are talking about, but I just let it go, and, by golly, I have had enough other things going on that I don't need to have that with me. I needed to let it go. I am tired! With the basketball season and supporting those people involved with it, teaching two Pilates classes a week, leading 12 people through the Spiritual Exercises and training another person to lead four others through them, getting the Body and Soul Companion School of Spiritual Direction started, supervising four spiritual directors in training, and meeting with fourteen individual directees, I have had my hands full. Oh, and I have had so many people pop up who have been doing the Exercises on my YouTube and also learning about the Cycle of Grace and wanting resources to go with it (I spent two hours yesterday updating the links on my resource page. This is what I love to do! I love to create resources that help people encounter God.).

So she can have it! 

So that is where there is an advantage to freewrite my unvarnished thoughts on Penzu.

I do miss here though. I freewrote here for several years! I am sure I have looked up when I started doing it on this blog. I'll reremind myself when I finish this freewrite. (I know I went to Julie's house in Ohio in 2001, and I am pretty sure I had been doing freewrites for a while prior to that. I did it on the my first blog starting in September 2004 but started labeling them freewrites for the first time in this blog in March 2005. Prior to that, I had been doing it on paper with my kids and on the Trapdoor Society/Edu-Anon Sonlight Forums.)

So, I was supposed to go to do "Doodle Prayers" with sweet T! When I was being certified to do spiritual direction with children from August-December of 2024, I met with T and her sisters (and one time with her brother) almost every week. It was nothing short of DELIGHTFUL! One time, we sat out on her back deck and doodled our prayers. It is from the book Praying in Color. She contacted me last week because she is being intentional during Lent about prayer (intentional at age 11) and loved it when we did it back then. So, we were going to "Doodle Prayer" this morning, but I had already scheduled some "Anam Cara" time with Kim today (walking slowly since she had food poisoning this week) because we have not seen each other since before Christmas, and we try to walk once a month, at least!

I also couldn't find my Doodle Prayer book! What happened to it? I can get the adult one from the library but I have looked all over for the kid one and cannot find it. So, I postponed with T until Monday. That way I can keep looking for the book (or get the adult one from the library) and ride my bike to her house after I teach my class on Monday. It works so much better to do it on Monday.

So this morning, I have been catching up my Spiritual Exercises links. Pray as You Go has added so many new meditations since I linked them all back in 2019-2020. I started doing this early this morning and kept going. It was great. 

Where is that Doodle Prayer book? I have ripped apart my study in search of it, and it is nowhere to be found!!!

I think it is so cute that she wanted to meet. I will have more energy for it on Monday. I had a big day yesterday, and there was a game last night. So, we brought dinner over to Aki's (my former basketball coach) and watched that. 

I am at 15 minutes. Tada!