Today, on the second day of September I would like to introduce this month’s promps.

prompts are a great way to inspire creativity when we are at a loss for something to do. But prompts also challenge us to push past our comfort zones, they force us to think outside the mundane, and introduce us to new ways of being in the world.

This month there are daily prompts, weekly prompts or a monthly prompt to explore in detail.

The monthly prompt is ‘GIFTS’.

The Weekly prompts are ‘Gifts, Pets, Gratitude, and Neighbors’.

All these prompts can be looked at from many different angles. But right now I thought I would talk for a second about ‘Gifts’. When we think of gifts the first thing that likely comes to mind are things given or received without the expectation of payment, usually given at specific times of year or for a particular purpose. Too often, gift giving becomes a culturally expected ritual, performed perfunctorily as a fulfillment of an understood, if not explicitly stated expectation.

But there is so much more to the idea of a gift than merely fulfilling the basics of a cultural contract. If gifts are things received or given without them being earned, than what in your life do you see as a gift? Do you see your talents as gifts? Do you see your experiences as gifts? What parts, if any, of your life do you see as a gift?

I think most people get joy out of giving gifts as we hope the joy is passed on with the gift. This is found in its purest form when a gift is given anonymously, or without any possibility for the recognition that comes with thanks.

How can this idea be translated into other parts of our lives? Or even a life as a whole? For instance, do we think of charitable giving or action as gift, or as just another necessary burden? How often do we give charity with the same joy as a gift given to a loved one? And can we reframe our thinking to see all that we give as a gift?

Can our very lives be lived as gifts, both given and received?

While there is so much more than this to the word ‘gift’, I think this gives a good place to start thinking about this prompt.