#JuWriSoMos Reflections, week 13

This past week was a lot. Between cancellations, meetings going over time, time with friends and family we don’t see often, and massive changes to plans because of weather…it was a lot like navigating through bowls of spaghetti.
Add to this that it is Human Trafficking Awareness Month (which I have been posting about in my blog), and the way we do anti-trafficking is still lacking. It’s also really complex and we don’t often acknowledge the complexity or our knowledge and skill gaps. Which bugs me because then we run around trying to make it seem like we know everything and/or we have everything together. But we don’t and we’re not often aware of the harm we are doing…or we don’t quite care and would rather be right instead of digging into the messiness.

Aaaaaanyway. I digress…

Each day this week, the prompts were the same four “complete the sentence” prompts. Back when I wrote this challenge, I wondered if the repetition would be helpful or not. Something in my gut said to keep it, even though my head found it slightly annoying to think about.

This week came, and I put the prompts into my document. “Stay curious” I reminded myself. And every day when I showed up to respond to the prompts, something different bubbled up. Every day, I pulled different highlights from my writing since the challenge began. Every day, I had different feelings, and different things I wanted to do before the challenge is over. Every day, it was like finding something new and often unexpected in a familiar space.

I am reminded of a story a professor of mine once told. I don’t remember many of the details, but I remember that a student was supposed to learn about fish and was instructed to “observe” a goldfish. Every day for a year, the student showed up and was told to observe the goldfish. The student began to really learn about the goldfish when they began to ask questions, and pay attention. The student found something new, every day.

The things that bubbled up from what I read and wrote this past week will simmer for awhile in the back of my mind I am sure. But I think I just want to pause in this observation for a moment.

It’s amazing what you can learn when you tune in, put aside the assumptions, and just notice.