My Favorite Questions

What are your favorite questions?

I believe questions have great power, so I have begun collecting them. Here are a few of my favorite questions. Some are questions we might ask others. Some are questions meant for personal reflection. Most could be used either way. Try them out and let me know how they work for you.

Are you willing to take a chance? How would your life be different if...? How does this make you feel? What did you learn from this experience? What is the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning? How can I be more like you?

Am I ready to change? What do I want most? How do I see myself? How do I see others? Do I love myself? What quality do I appreciate most in myself? What quality would I like to develop? What embarrasses me? What would I like to let go of?

Am I part of the problem? Am I part of the solution? Why doesn't anything change, even when I try so hard? What can I learn from this difficult situation? How big is the problem? What worries me most?

What do I believe? What is my favorite word? What is my favorite quote? What am I afraid of? Where do I turn for answers? What brings me peace? Have I found my true purpose? What brings meaning to my life?

What are your favorite questions?

Linda Garner

P.S.

Many of the questions in the post were taken from the book Change Your Questions, Change Your Life by Wendy Watson Nelson. Pick up a copy. You'll love it.

Question Everything

I love questions. They are powerful tools. They invite reflection. They invite answers. They allow us to expand our vision. They help us to see more clearly.

A good question can improve communication. It can invite a friend to share his/her heart with you. It can invite a spouse to share his/her thoughts with you. A good question can expand a relationship and take it to a deeper level.

Questions can help us evaluate our thinking, our living, our understanding. They can help us focus on our dreams and see things we haven’t noticed before. They can enlarge us, encourage us, empower us.

A writer needs to question everything.

Is the plot working? Are the characters real? Is my title inviting? Is the dialogue believable? Are my words interesting? Is my beginning engaging? Is my ending satisfying? What is the takeaway? Are there unnecessary words or chapters? Does every scene contribute to the story? Is this my best work?

Questions can change your writing, and your life.

Question everything.

Linda Garner

Where's My Paintbrush?

“Beginnings are usually scary and endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts. You have to remember this when you find yourself at the beginning.” Sandra Bullock

I have always loved beginnings. I delight in the start of a new month, the start of a new week, the start of a new year. I get a kick out of a fresh start. I adore mornings. Morning feels like taking a fresh canvas of time and deciding what I will paint on it.

I don’t really do New Years Resolutions, instead I make plans. This year I plan to enjoy myself more. I intend to love more. I plan to connect more. I intend to take better care of myself and my glorious body. I plan to put the disappointments of yesterday behind me and believe in the promise of tomorrow.

This year, I will choose carefully how to spend my gift of time. I will not have time for judging other or for criticism. I will not have time for discouragement or negative thoughts. I will choose to move on when others disappoint me. I will choose forgiveness.

I plan to love myself more completely. I choose to believe in myself and to appreciate my uniqueness. I don’t have to be perfect. I can love myself as I am.

I am planning to see more sunsets, more rainbows, more waterfalls. I am planning to trust more, to give more, to dance more. I am planning to see more, to hear more, to live more.

Life is a curious mix of beginnings, middles, and endings. Today’s beginning signals an end to yesterday. Today is the middle of something. In the middle lie some of Life’s harder choices. Persistence and stamina pay off in the middle, not the end. Today is a beginning, middle, and end. Today brings promise, fueled by choice.

Shall we not embrace the promise? Shall we not believe in choice?

I believe. It’s a New Year. What will I paint on this canvas?

Happy 2011.

Linda Garner

December Morning

December morning robed in white.
Snowflakes gathered through the night,
Gentle reminders of the love
that gathers daily from above.

My heart has saved a sacred place
To think of His redeeming grace,
And on this morning crisp and clear
I seem to feel his presence near.

I’m grateful for the wondrous Man
Who magnified our Father’s plan.
I celebrate His life, His birth,
His perfect love which gives me worth.

On every morn throughout the year
I hope to feel His presence near.
And may I someday grow to be
The woman that He sees in me.


Linda Garner

I Love a Good Sort-Out

I think I have spent a good portion of my life dejunking. I seem to attract clutter. I know people who collect things. I have a friend who collects elephants, and another who collects teacups. I, on the other hand collect stuff. I blame it on my pioneer heritage. I hold on to things because I might need them some day.

I started the new year dejunking. It’s quite liberating. I am enjoying letting go of things that no longer serve me. When I finish dejunking a closet or a room, I stand back and admire the clean space I have created. It’s a nice feeling. Then I move on to another messy spot. I have so many messy spots that I will probably spend a good share of 2010 dejunking. Will it ever end?

Like a line I heard once on a Brittish comedy, I love a good sort-out. In my life, I have often found a good sort-out helpful. I enter the closet of my mind and find aging moldy thoughts and attitudes long outgrown or completely worn out, but not discarded. It’s liberating to toss them out, and make space for new ideas, new habits, a new me.

Dejunking my heart is another life-long process. It can be painful, but satisfying. I’m thinking of tossing out fear and making room for trust. Perhaps I’ll throw out anger to make room for love. Maybe I could clear out judgement to make room for joy.

Dejunking is such good therapy that maybe I should try it on my writing. Am I brave enough to look for clutter there? How many words can I afford to keep? How many is too many? Which ones should I toss?

Sometimes it hurts. But only for a little while.

I love a good sort-out.

Linda Garner