Journaling Club | Monthly Gatherings

This page is an ongoing record of our journaling club gatherings.

Ahead of each session, I’ll share the outline and prompts here. You can join live on Zoom on the day of the gathering or move through the prompts on your own time.

Whether you write with the group or return to this page later, it’s here as a place to begin and to find a bit of inspiration.

"I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were." - Joan Didion

March 22, 2026

Joan Didion (1934–2021) wrote about staying on “nodding terms” with the people we used to be. Not holding on too tightly, but not turning away either. Didion understood that identity is layered and evolving, and that our past selves are not something to reject or romanticize, but something to remain in quiet relationship with.

This session explores the balance between nostalgia and forward movement, and how we can honor our history while continuing forward.

Warm-Up Prompt

Inspired by the 2020 speculative novel The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

In The Midnight Library, the main character is given the chance to step into different versions of her life, exploring paths she didn’t take and seeing how they might have unfolded.

The novel explores the idea that for every life we could have lived, there is another version of us shaped by different choices. You don’t need to have read the book to work with this idea.

Take a few minutes to think of a path you didn’t take.

It might be:

A decision that could have gone another way
A version of your life you once imagined
A direction you moved away from

You may begin with:

“There was a time I thought I might…”

Suggested writing time: 5–10 minutes

Main Writing Session

For our main writing time, there are two prompts below. Take a minute to read through them. You may choose one, write into both, or set them aside and go in your own direction.

Both connect to the idea of paths, the ones we imagine and the ones we return to.

Prompt Option One | Forks in the Road

From The Book of Alchemy | “Forks in the Road” by Jedidiah Jenkins (page 239)

Note: If you do not have the book and would like to receive a copy of 'Forks in the Road', send me an email.

Identify two turning points in your life.

Write about:

What led up to each one
Why you chose the path you did
How those moments connect to where you are now

You may write about them separately or let them move together on the page.

Suggested writing time: 15-20 minutes

Prompt Option Two | The Path Not Taken

A prompt from one of Suleika Jaouad’s Sunday Musings by Lori Tucker-Sullivan. It looks at the paths we didn’t take, with the understanding that they may not be gone for good.

Prompt 320. My Full-Circle Era by Lori Tucker-Sullivan

Growing up in Detroit, music was a significant part of my life—from Motown to Bob Seger to Iggy Pop—so I always knew I wanted music in my life. I also chronicled much of my childhood in journals and diaries. As a teen, I wished to marry these two loves and become a music writer, following bands around and writing edgy-yet-poignant profiles, so when I headed to college, I decided to study journalism.

But as so often happens, I changed course—my life went in a different direction. I graduated and married my college sweetheart, Kevin, and soon after, we discovered an abandoned farmhouse to renovate. The house became a never-ending domestic project. Kids followed, and I felt I needed to contribute to our family. Instead of pursuing the dreams of my youth, I took a flexible job in public relations and worked in marketing and administrative roles for the next twenty years. I was happy—but honestly, I always felt I was missing something. I spent years looking over my shoulder at the path not taken, wondering why, what if, and whether I should have done things differently. I sometimes felt I’d gone in the wrong direction, and that earlier versions of me would be disappointed.

Eventually, I realized that I needed writing and was also pretty good at it. I returned to school for my MFA, which Kevin supported. However, only one semester into that study, Kevin was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, a difficult cancer that took his life two years later. More losses followed, compounding my grief and making me question my purpose. Over the next three years, I lost both parents and three close friends. I sold the home we renovated and sent my children off to college. Suddenly all the things that had made up my identity were gone: no longer a daughter or wife, and only a mother distantly. Instead of thinking wistfully about the path not taken, I searched for the path I thought I would live forever, but it had disappeared. I couldn’t see a clear way forward.

It was a humbling time. I wondered how I could’ve possibly thought my life had ever been missing something. At the same time, I knew I had to forge a new way where there now was none. I accepted that the life I’d led was different than what younger me had anticipated, but it was also full of love and meaning. I no longer wanted to choose a different way, but instead, loop back in a way that honored me in all my phases. And so I determined to pursue my old loves of music and writing—to pick up where I’d left off years before. I wrote and recently published a book about the widows of my favorite rock stars and what these women could teach us (especially me, a fellow widow) about grief—an experience that was both life-affirming and life-changing.

The road ahead is now full of wonder and the unexpected. In a nod to pop culture, I’ve come to call this time my “full-circle era.” Armed with life lessons, memories, determination, and a full heart, I’m back where I began, taking new steps on beautifully familiar terrain.

Prompt: Reflect on a road not taken. What have you left behind, and how might you pick it up again? Daydream your way into your full-circle era.

For additional inspiration:

Reflect on a road not taken.

What did you leave behind?
What has stayed with you?
Is there something you might return to, even in a different form?

You might think about:

An interest you set aside
A version of yourself you moved away from
Something you once loved

You may begin with:

“A path I didn’t take was…”

“Something I left behind that still stays with me is…”

Suggested writing time: 15-20 minutes

March 1, 2026

Warm-up prompt: Patti Smith on the Lunar New Year (5 minutes)

Choose a word, fragment or line from this short reflection by Patti Smith on the Lunar New Year, from her Substack (including voiceover).

Main Writing Prompts (15-20 minutes)

For our main writing time, there are two prompts below. Take a minute to read through them. You may choose one, write into both, or set them aside and go in your own direction.

Both connect to this moment in the year, the beginning of March and the sense of something shifting.

Prompt Option One | The Spark & The Steady Flame

The Year of the Fire Horse is often associated with boldness, independence, and forward movement. But fire takes many forms. It can blaze brightly. It can smolder quietly. It can warm and persist.

Rather than asking how to be more intense, consider:

Where is there already energy in your life?
Where do you feel momentum, even in a small way?
Where might you need steadiness instead of acceleration?

Write toward the kind of fire that would sustain you this season.

What feeds it?
What protects it?

Write for 15-20 minutes and see where it takes you.

Prompt Option Two | Another Birth

Drawing from Another Birth by Forugh Farrokhzad.

Often remembered simply as Forugh, Forugh Farrokhzad (1935–1967) is one of the most widely studied and translated modern Iranian poets. A bold and independent writer, she became an icon of the modern Iranian woman, not only for her work but for her refusal to conform to traditional social expectations in her personal life. In her poetry, she wrote openly about desire, vulnerability, and inner life, reshaping how both women and men were portrayed in Persian literature.

In this poem, she writes:

“I planted my hands in the garden
I will grow, I know, I know, I know.”

(The full poem appears in her collection Another Birth and can be found in published translations of her work).

Spring rarely announces itself all at once. Growth often begins beneath the surface.

For this prompt, focus on something specific in your life right now.

It might be:

A habit you are trying to build
A conversation you need to have
A creative project (maybe spring gardening plans?)
A boundary
A relationship
A small act of self-trust

Where have you already begun?
What have you already done, even if it feels small?
What might be taking shape, even if it is slow?

You may begin with one of the following lines:

“Something I have already started is…”
“Even if no one else can see it, I have begun…”
“I did not notice at first, but…”

Write for 15-20 minutes and see where it takes you.

Note for next time: Our next gathering on Sunday, March 22 will center on themes from The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

THE LONG RETURN

Journaling Club | Monthly Gatherings

Warm-Up Prompt

Main Writing Session

Prompt Option One | Forks in the Road

Prompt Option Two | The Path Not Taken

Prompt 320. My Full-Circle Era by Lori Tucker-Sullivan

Prompt: Reflect on a road not taken. What have you left behind, and how might you pick it up again? Daydream your way into your full-circle era.

March 1, 2026

Warm-up prompt: Patti Smith on the Lunar New Year (5 minutes)

Main Writing Prompts (15-20 minutes)

For our main writing time, there are two prompts below. Take a minute to read through them. You may choose one, write into both, or set them aside and go in your own direction.

​

Prompt Option One | The Spark & The Steady Flame

Prompt Option Two | Another Birth