May 2024: GROW
Writing prompts and reflections to support you all month long
Welcome back to #AcWriMoments, a yearlong experiment in purposeful scholarship creation. On the first day of each month in 2024, we offer you a guidepost with a unique theme and simple prompts for living out the theme as a scholar and a human. Return to the guidepost all month long, anytime you need support for cultivating SACRED (strategic, artisanal, creative, reflective, embodied, delicious) moments of communion with yourself and your work. May these offerings encourage you in your pursuit of whatever goals and visions you deem worthy of your attention—the most precious resource you have.
Theme for May 2024: GROW
As we move toward summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the earth is bursting with fresh life. The month of May is named for Maia, an earth goddess associated with the concept of increase (maius / maior = larger, greater). May is when germination comes to fruition.
To GROW is to increase in size or complexity, to mature, or to progress. Living beings grow (babies, forests) and so do intangibles like ideas and emotional connections. For scholars, manuscripts can evince both tangible and intangible forms of growth as increases in page counts hint at deepening understanding and expanded expertise.
The verb GROW can be transitive or intransitive, referring to an effect that you cultivate (“I grow manuscripts”) or to an experience you have (“I grow by writing manuscripts”). Either way, to effect or experience growth is to be alive to change — even when it happens imperceptibly to a body that is apparently at rest.
This May, look for growth in your life wherever you may notice it. See if you can loosen your grip on the imperative sense of the word “grow” (as in “grow up!” or “grow your impact!”) and instead sit with the growth that is already happening organically. Notice how and where you’re becoming stronger, wiser, more skilled, or broader in perspective.
Growth can be quick or slow, purposeful or spontaneous. Sometimes it’s attended by physical and emotional growing pains. However and whenever it comes, growth is what shows us our stories are still unfolding.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
What has scholarly growth looked like for you in the past month or year? Think emotional, intellectual, or any other kind of growth. Be as specific as you can in describing to yourself the signs of growth.
What do you hope scholarly growth will look like for you over the next month or year? What qualities or skills do you hope to strengthen? Note one specific strategy, resource, or relationship you can draw on to support your growth.
How can you support the growth of others in your life? Think friends, family, colleagues, mentors. Whose growth do you want to invest in, and what is one resource or piece of guidance you can offer?
PRACTICES & EXPERIMENTS
Notice the growth of your scholarship. Look over an old scholarly project of yesteryear and reacquaint yourself with the Younger You who created it. How have your ideas and skills developed since then? Notice too what Younger You knew that Current You has forgotten: how can your growth today be prompted by recovering and remembering something you used to know?
Cultivate the growth of your scholar self. Invest in one new tool or resource that can help you grow in strength, skill, or wisdom this month. It could be a book, an experience, or anything tangible or intangible. It could even be something already in your possession that you just hadn’t put to use yet. Check in at the end of the month to see how much you’ve grown.
Encourage the growth of another scholar. Offer a leg up, a word of encouragement, or a more tangible gift to a fellow scholar this month. Choose something that can genuinely help them toward becoming the future self they want to be.
As you live the theme of GROWTH this month, what new possibilities open up for you? How can you GROW into the insights that you need to move in, with, and toward your purpose as a scholar?
Thank you for joining us for #AcWriMoments! We’d love to hear from you. Please drop us a comment to let us know what you’re learning, trying, and discovering this month.
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