Everyday Canvas

Life’s Spell, People, and Courage

Prompt: "Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it." Emily Dickinson Do you agree? Write anything you want about this.

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The purpose of life’s spell must be to magnify or add to the positive energy. Yet, who can understand and appreciate it? We are born with blank brains that are filled in with stuff from our environments. Then, according to our circumstances, we curse or applaud life or fate itself. Still, some of us try to decipher that spell and take apart its components. This trying to figure out life can be the very thing that makes it other than what it is, bitter than what it is. If we just accepted life as is, maybe we could just dwell in it without breaking its spell.

Anyhow, this is what I think Emily Dickinson might have meant, although no one can really tell what any poet means by any line of his or her words. In addition, I don’t agree with the idea that “everything conspires to break it,” which is a gloomy view of that “everything.”

Prompt: Abraham Lincoln said, “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”
What do you think are the pros and cons of trying to get to know someone better of whom we have a negative first impression?

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People don’t always hit it off right away. In order to create better understanding and appreciate our differences, we need to give another chance to people who rubbed us the wrong way in the beginning.

The initial dislike between people can happen anywhere, but it is especially harmful in a workplace. Let’s face it, we have to work together so whatever it is we are working toward—a project, a company, workers unity, a competition, a team, etc.—can be successful. For that, we need to identify the differences, accept, and even use them for the greater purpose.

Then, more often than not, first impressions can be at fault. We might have seen in the other person something we don’t like in another, due to his or her simple likeness in an area, say the hairstyle, since the mind has its own way of reading data and converting it to ideas. Even if for this reason only, we must give the other person the benefit of the doubt and try to get to know them much better. After all, what have we got to lose?

Prompt: “Gardening, like life, requires courage. We must be brave enough to cut back the old and sit with fewer branches, awaiting new growth. And we must trust that it will come.” From Waking up in Winter by Cheryl Richardson
Can you think of any specific areas of living where this cutting back and waiting for new growth idea would apply?


Growth and change in life is a natural phenomenon. While we like growing a spirit of freedom, nurturing and exciting friendships, and positive pastimes, when daily demands keep us busy and focused on only certain areas and we think life is satisfying and rewarding, we may not notice the surplus and superfluous aspects of living crowding our attention. When this happens and we notice it, we need to dig up the weeds, prune excesses and unrewarding activities, and not let the choking addictions take over us like the stubborn poison ivy.

Should weeds, excesses, or addictions of any kind appear we must be able to get rid of them and wait for the new growth, which will need hard work, patience, and courage. With a determined mindset, this will happen and we must trust the process with patience that it has to happen, as our freedom, internal and external, lies in our brave actions.