Daily Nourishment for November 2, 2024: All Souls’ Day with Guidance from Lauren Winner
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 60 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
A Note from Lauren: This week’s offerings will be calendar-themed, as we move toward All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day.
Pause.
Today is All Souls’ Day, the day on which the church celebrates all of our dead beloveds. It is a day of remembering.
Close your eyes and for a moment breathe deeply, and invite remembrance forward. Then, when you are ready, open your eyes and keep reading.
Prompt.
A First Prompt:
Eating the Cookies
By Jane Kenyon
The cousin from Maine, knowing
about her diverticulitis, left out the nuts,
so the cookies weren’t entirely to my taste,
but they were good enough; yes, good enough.
Each time I emptied a drawer or shelf
I permitted myself to eat one.
I cleared the closet of silk caftans
that slipped easily from clattering hangers,
and from the bureau I took her nightgowns
and sweaters, financial documents
neatly cinctured in long gray envelopes,
and the hairnets and peppermints she’d tucked among
Lucite frames abounding with great-grandchildren,
solemn in their Christmas finery.
Finally the drawers were empty,
the bags full, and the largest cookie,
which I had saved for last, lay
solitary in the tin with a nimbus
of crumbs around it. There would be no more
parcels from Portland. I took it up
and sniffed it, and before eating it,
pressed it against my forehead, because
it seemed like the next thing to do.
*
A Second Prompt:
Patrica Hampl on memory:
We trust memory against all evidence: it is selective, subjective, cannily defensive, unreliable as fact. But a single red detail remembered - a hat worn in 1952, the nail polish applied one summer day by an aunt to her toes, separated by balls of cotton, as we watched - has more real blood than the creatures around us on a bus as, for some reason, we think of that day, that hat, those bright feet.
Practice.
A First Practice:
Complete the clause “there would be no more…”
*
A Second Practice:
Whom do you most want to remember? Fairly quickly, not lingering, write down
a picture you carry in your mind that includes a vivid color
a bodily memory of the person (dancing with her in your father’s living room to “A Fugue for Tinhorns” at Thanksgiving)
a memory that includes both the person and a plant
Jot down the beginnings of three more memories. Talk to the person. Aloud.
Want More?
—Victoria Chang on memory and grief
—Michael Bassett on Lucille Clifton on memory
*
Workshops, Gatherings, & Resources
—New Resource: A Solo Writing Retreat for Election Season and Beyond
—New Resource: Parenting with Art® Lectio Divina Cards Information about ordering these cards can be found in my Books + Spiritual Direction + Retreats & Gatherings email newsletter . To stay in the loop on all of my work, writing, book recs, and more, subscribe to that weekly newsletter at charlottedonlon.com/subscribe.
—October Co-Writing is live. All SDW Members get free co-writing through November. If you aren’t a member and would like to join us, please contact me at charlotte@charlottedonlon.com and I’ll hook you up.
—The Great Belonging Project is live here and The Great Belonging Project October Refresh will take place Oct 1-Oct 31.
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Lauren Winner. Lauren Winner is a writer, professor, Episcopal Priest, & spiritual director.
Read Lauren’s full bio here.
*Please help us protect our intellectual property, our creative process, and the integrity of our work. Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment is covered under the Spiritual Direction for Writers® trademark. You are welcome to share this link with others, but any other use (written or spoken) is prohibited without written permission from Charlotte Donlon.