25 Words of Living

Sunday, July 20 ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico

It wasn't until today that I got around to responding to the 25 Words of Work / Life Wisdom challenge put forward by fellow blogger Liz Strauss earlier this month -- only to discover that I'd missed the deadline!

Still, it's such a good exercise that I did it anyhow. Now, I want to share it and invite you to try it.

Here's Liz's idea (slightly modified):

1) Look for something you see too much or too little of, something you're feeling right now or someone/something you would like to describe.
2) Without thinking too much as you do it, write a sentence or two about it.
3) Count the words you have written.
4) Trim the sentence until you have 25 words -- no more, no less. Notice how your idea changes as you distill it and how your feelings change with each rewrite.
5) For a little extra fun, create a Wordle word cloud with your 25 words at www.wordle.net.

Because it's too late to be part of Liz's project, I invite you to post your sentence here -- or to post it on your own blog and include a link to your blog in the comments here. Include a link to your Wordle word cloud, too.

I'll be reposting this invitation on my blog about writing, The Voice of Your Muse in a couple of days.

It's a great writing exercise, but it's also a great experience in both distilling and discovering what you think and what you believe.

Here's mine: Today I remember that surrender is the key to writing and life: trusting that all is in divine order in every moment, in every breath.

You'll find more examples on Liz's site as well as at the Remarkable Parents blog.

Give it a try. It's both fun and enlightening!