This week’s writing prompt urges you to look into your bliss!
In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s character is trapped in an endless repetition of his worst day. At one moment, despairing of being able to ever escape from the dull repetition of his most tedious chores, he describes a day in his memory when he was in the Bahamas, ate lobster, and frolicked in amorous freedom with a sweetheart.
“Why couldn’t I have that day?” he asks.
In this exercise, conjure up a perfect day out of the past, finding moments that inexplicably held moments of happiness for you. Give yourself time to roam for different glimpses of bliss, and they may have been brief, but memorable. I think of a day when I looked out over the square of St. Mark’s Plaza in Venice; it was a hot, windy summer afternoon, and I’d been travelling and walking, and had taken a moment to rest on some stone steps and look out at the water. The moment has stayed with me as a kind of surge of joy in just being alive filled my heart. I have found a different kind of joy when holding my son when he still let me hold him tight, the way it made me secure to know he was nearby. Think of your moments of joy, and take your time as you describe them in detail. Later, you can think of these moments as places of resolution for characters, or for an essay that explores the questions of why life matters. Construct a narrative that ends with one of your moments of bliss.
