“Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.”
- Madeleine L’Engle
No one ever promised the world and all the sentient beings within it would be rational. My response when others make such an assertion is a silent blinking.
My expectation is usually completely to the contrary.
Rationality and life aren’t consistent bed partners. They are mismatched fighting rather than kissing cousins.
I prefer to swim around in the paradox, “Things make the most sense when they make no sense at all.”
The word in Madeleine L’Engle’s quote, “Truth” is one of those words that is liable to tangle us up, cause us to do somersaults up a hill and is like the tar on the steps to the palace where Cinderella lost her slipper.
Truth doesn’t mean facts, either, if that’s what you’re thinking.
One doesn’t find facts in painting or singing or writing.
When one paints or sings or writes the breath slows, the heartbeat settles into a lullaby rather than a jack hammer and our mind turns from a muddy sink hole into a meadow in the early morning, filled with sunflowers and meadowlarks.
Perhaps that is what “truth” is. Perhaps that is how we know something is true or not.
I’m not sure.
What does truth look like to you? Which leads us to today’s round of prompting.
Questions:
What does truth look like to you?
What does truth taste, sound, smell like?
Lists:
Make a list of 5 - 10 one sentence responses written freely and randomly when you see the phrase, “Stand in truth.”
Make a list of 3 - 5 moments of irrational experience, when circumstances didn’t line up “correctly.”
Bonus: spend five minutes free writing on each irrational experience.
Conventional writing prompts:
When my world becomes irrational I usually….
My favorite way to respond to an irrational world is…
For these, repeat the “I want to” as you write about the specific subjects you want to paint, even if what comes off your pencil (fingers on the keyboard) seems like complete gobbledy gook. Write for at least five minutes on each “want” and enjoy the process. Just see what happens without judging yourself.. just write!
I want to paint…
I want to write…
I want to sing….
Why be inspired by literary grannies? Read the introductory post here -
This series (now a part of the Ultimate Blog Challenge) is also 
serving as a bridge to my new blog which will be unveiled in the middle of the month. In past blog challenges I have offered prompts under the "Let Your Words Flow" name. The Inspiration from Literary Grannies serve as a subset of that series.
I welcome your comments, your questions and your quote contributions. Please share the prompts with your writing buddies and friends!
In fact, as you read books written by women in 2015, take note of inspiring quotes. I would love to add them to my collection and may even write a prompt from them.
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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming Winter 2015 and beyond.
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