THIS WEEK’S writing prompt on womensmemoirs.com by Promptly Portland is a fun one for journal writers, so I thought I’d piggyback on it.
If you love to write and you’re a woman — sorry guys — and you haven’t yet checked out this informative website, I highly recommend it. In fact, I like it so much that my weekly guest blog, with a focus on journal writing, begins August 7th.
Anyway, in her article, Promptly (I’d love to know what her real name is) asks us to look in our wallets and think about what we carry around with us and why we do so. I won’t repeat the post, because you can read it for yourself, but I thought it would be interesting to expand on it a little and also to use the concept for some reflective journaling.
What do you carry in your purse or wallet? Is it full of practical items, or are there things, such as photos, that are meaningful to you in some way? I, for one, tend to be rather practical — my purse is full of things like eyeglass and sunglass cases, keys, tissue, lip gloss and bandaids, my wallet (just money, credit cards, and driver’s license), my phone and my iPad. So, at first glance, there’s nothing there to write about, really.
But then I think: my photos are all on my phone and iPad. I used to carry conventional photos around with me, but they were always out-of-date. Now I can take many more with me that are current. Woe to the poor soul who asks if I have pictures of my grandchildren with me! My iPad replaces the paper notebook and books that I always used to lug around, so I have ready access to places to write and read and think.
I can take any one of the items hidden within the technology inside my purse and make it the subject of Portland’s wonderful writing prompts: how is this (picture, person, document, record) important to me? Who/what are they in my life and who would I be without them/it? It’s a grand subject upon which to ponder. Would I really be “me” without my grandchildren? Well, yes, but there’s that part of me — the Nana part — that wouldn’t have expression in this world. And you know what? She’s really the playful part of me. I like her.
It will be worthwhile for me to take some time and journal about this topic — the important people in my life and who I am as a result of my relationships with them.
Will you join me?
Photo of Purse by: mbostock____________________________________________
Let’s keep the connections open! To participate in BlogTalk, write a post related to this topic and post it in your blog, with a link back to Writing Through Life. Or leave a comment below with a link to your blog. I’ll visit your blog for a future BlogTalk article.
What’s in my purse?
Sometimes a number of other mini purses. There might be as many as three or as few as zero of these little fabric zipper pouches. Within these little bags could be my ipod with headset, my lipstick (or one of my lipsticks, which I don’t wear very often but carry around), my headbands for when my hair needs to be contained.
Also, in the main body of the purse, you will find my glasses case with my 10 year old Maui Jim’s , a pair of reading glasses and my red check book sized wallet that I got at Ross 7 years ago. Red, because I heard that the color red attracts wealth -oh yes and my cell phone.
And then there’s the possibility that all those things in the little purses are in my big basket that I carry my little purse around in and the only thing in my backpack purse is my wallet, phone and glasses.
I frequently purchase purses, always looking for just the right one.
My latest purse is not so pretty but very functional. It’s a small backpack with two handy pockets on the side.
My cell phone, my keys, my sun and reading glasses all vye for these pockets and though I try to be consistent about putting my keys in the side pocket in an attempt to not lose them, they will often end up in the main body of the purse and I will suffer a moment of panic thinking that “holy cow” I’ve lost my f-ing keys once again!
On a more personal note, purses are my connection with my maternal grandmother Helen.
When I was a baby/toddler living in Colorado my favorite thing in all the world was my grandmothers purse drawer. I loved the way it smelled and how tidy it looked. It felt like wealth to me.
I would ask her to look in her purse drawer frequently and she would always let me.
The happiest day’s are when she would let me use one and we would walk downtown to Walgreens, me wearing a dress and carrying my purse and her doing the same.
If we didn’t walk downtown together then I would borrow her purse, get dressed up and go outside on the front porch and for the rest of the afternoon, I would play visitor, and ring her doorbell and announce myself and she would greet me with great joy, numerous times, throught-out the afternoon.
By the way, my favorite purses are red, square leather, hand-bags. You will probably never see me use it because it’s far to formal, but you will also never find it in my toss out pile!