Journal prompt: Nurtured

From time to time I hit a writer’s block here and fall silent. Especially when things are burbling around me that aren’t my stories to tell. Luckily, the internet provides many journaling prompts that I can lean on to help me out.

This prompt: What physical sensations make you feel nurtured? How can you bring more of them into your routine? comes from Papier’s Journaling Prompts for the Senses Instagram post. Papier’s mission is to sell notebooks, pens, and journals so this is a very wise service for them to provide.

Snuggling underneath a blanket makes me feel nurtured. I have a vague memory of being tucked in the backseat of the car while driving home from my grandmother’s house on Christmas Eve and how safe, warm, and loved I felt¹. Over the last 10-15 years I have incorporated blankets and throws into my cozy home life and they make me very happy.

For a while, I had a weighted blanket in the bedroom and I enjoyed it². However, once I lifted the “no dogs on the bed” rule for Murphy, his weight on top of my weighted blanket made it too difficult for me to move and I went from feeling safe and warm to feeling like Giles Corey³. Finding a good combination of bed blankets has been a challenge since I entered my Hot Crone years. I can’t sleep without layers of linens on top of me, even when I’m warm. I have a very lightweight gray one that I use under the bedspread on my side of the bed. It’s enough for me to feel it, but not enough to overheat me. If it gets too much, I dangle a foot out over the side of the bed. There is a large cohort of people who will never do this because of monsters under the bed, but not me. There is no room for a monster under my bed. 🙂

I have a few blankets and throws I use on the sofa throughout the year. Even though it’s warm in summer, I still snuggle up with a lightweight blanket from May to September. I’m currently using a blue Mickey Mouse one but I think I want a lightweight muslin one instead. That’s the internet trying to influence me, by the way. In September I switch to a slightly heavier orange one that evokes Fall⁴. After Thanksgiving, I change that out for a red and white blanket from Life is Good that features dogs in Santa hats. It’s as tacky as it sounds. You can see it in a photo here. WM bought me a fancy shmancy faux-fur sofa throw from Pottery Barn a few years ago. It’s warm and super snuggly and takes me from January through April. I call it my Queen of the North blanket.

May we all feel nurtured this week, even when things look dire. <3

1. This may be a conjured memory, or possibly because the car had no/bad heat. ↩︎
2. I also enjoy the lead apron they put on you before dental X-rays. ↩︎
3. I was a Salem Witchcraft Trial devotee in my younger years. ↩︎
4. I still hate fall, but its colorways can’t be beat. ↩︎