The Fifty-Eighth Question: Life is Magnificent
Thinking about all the ways that things are coming up Milhouse (or {INSERT NAME HERE}) lately.
A note from our editorial staff
The next month in Asking the Question is going to be a bit light from us. You’ll still get you weekly prompts, but I might not be popping in with my typical reflections. Why? Because I’ll be in Australia!
So I’m planning out our prompts in advance. Don’t want to leave you without them! When I can, I’ll try to hop in and add my own thoughts, but don’t expect them. That way, when they don’t show up, it won’t be a disappointment. See, it’s all in the expectations game!
Answering the Question
Last week, I asked you to consider how you have been withholding, or denying, your “yes.” As I reflected on the prompt, and maybe this was the same for you, I didn’t discover an answer that reflected the clear binary. That is, it wasn’t as simple as me saying “no” at times when I wanted to say “yes.”
What I noticed more was that I was avoiding (avoidance being a topic we’ve covered here before) taking a stance at all. In situations where my opinion or desire was being asked for, I was avoiding sharing them at all. It’s that lingering people-pleaser in me. For as much as I might be outspoken in front of a wider audience (the internet, an interview), I still aim to please, and avoid conflict, when in a 1-to-1 setting. The purpose it serves? Avoiding conflict and discomfort.
Making peace with this, I tell myself I don’t really care much about the issue at hand, whether its where we go for dinner or how we spend a morning. The truth is that I do care but I would feel awful if I deprived someone the opportunity to pursue the thing they wanted to do. So rather than stand up and identify my need, and give someone the chance to accept that or express theirs, I immediately defer to their whims and wishes.
It’s something I’m working on. In the past few years, I’ve gotten a lot better. Most times, I’m unafraid of pursuing the thing that will give me the joy, or just experience, I seek out. But I’m still a work in progress…
Can you relate?
The Fifty-Eighth Question
What are the things you enjoy about your life right now?
I’m feeling bright and peppy, so let’s embrace a question that will hopefully push us all to discover the brightness in our lives right now.
Are these things you have had for a while and not appreciated (or appreciated all along), or recent changes?
Are any of these things you used to have a difficult relationship with, but that relationship has since changed?
If these are people, businesses, groups, etc. have you told them about their impact?
How can you center these things in your life, or make them a more significant part of it?
This Week’s Jam: “Magnificent”
New-ish track alert!
It’s a bit weird to wake up to “new music” from your deceased idols. Some music fans (myself among them) got a double dose of that this week, with new releases from Tina Turner and Prince. “Magnificent”, the aforementioned Prince track, was apparently released as a “virtual b-side” to the Musicology album in 2004. If you knew how to access a “virtual b-side” in 2004, power to you. But just a few weeks ago the song was released as a standalone single that we can all enjoy. I’m still just breaking it in.
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See you next weekend!
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