Embrace a Sabbath ✨

What childhood activities brought you joy, and how can you create space this week for a personal Sabbath to revisit one?

January 16, 2025

I was recently visiting a friend who owns a pottery wheel. She’s gotten incredibly good at throwing cups and bowls.

As I was looking at her latest ceramic work, the late-stage capitalism in me couldn’t help but blurt out, “You should turn this into a side hustle!”

She smiled and gently reminded me that pottery is her passion. For her, the joy comes from the process, not the profit. Once she ties it to making money, she fears it will lose its magic.

And she’s absolutely right.

In The Power of Ritual, Casper ter Kuile highlights how the “Age of the Screen” that we’re all in has left little room for amateur creativity.

“We feel no permission to sing or dance because we’ve seen what it should look like when professionals perform. We’re never free to learn a craft because the horror of someone seeing our imperfect work is paralyzing.”

But there’s hope.

We can reclaim our creative pursuits by carving out time for a Sabbath—a sacred pause from productivity and performance.

“Sabbath isn’t a time to catch up on tasks. Nor is it simply a time of rest to prepare for a busy week. It is a time to revel in the beauty and delight of simply being.”

Journal Prompt

Make a list of 10 activities you loved as a kid, things you did purely for the joy of them, without any pressure to be “good.” 

Now, find time in your week to take a personal Sabbath—whether it’s a full day or just 10 minutes of unstructured creative time to revisit one of those activities.

Happy journaling,

Kelsey

Did you like today's prompt?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Most journal prompts you’ll find here draw inspiration from the books I’m reading. Below, you’ll find the books and weekly themes so you can read ahead if you’d like. Reading isn’t necessary—it's simply an option if a particular theme sparks your curiosity and you'd like to dive deeper. 

Here’s the schedule:

Was this email forwarded to you? Welcome! You can subscribe here to get tomorrow’s prompt.

Want to find more prompts? You can scroll through all previous prompts here.