An alchemical update...

How my 100 day project is going.

I’m halfway through Suleika Jaouad’s transformative Book of Alchemy, staying committed to this 100 Day Challenge 🙌 and working with the inspiring (and challenging!) writing prompts (almost) every day. There are 10 chapters, with 10 essays by 10 different amazing humans in each one. So— 100 essays, 100 days.

Some are funny, some are heartbreaking. But all of them ask the reader to stop, reassess, think, wonder, and write. (All of this fits with my basic SS theme -Continuing Wonderment.)

I thought I’d post one (or two) of my little essays that have resulted from this project. I’m a little over halfway through the book, and the journal I started is almost done so I’ll need to start another one to continue the project.

Here is the prompt from Jennifer Leventhal’s poignant “Letter to a Stranger”, p. 140, which first appeared in Suleika’s Isolation Journals Substack.

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I wrote a letter to the Dour Old Man on the Park Bench.

“Dear Dour Man who sits on the park bench every day…

I do try, I really do, to be friendly every morning, when Ginger and I come by to walk on the bike path by the river. How many years have I been walking past you, how many mornings? I first encountered you sitting there, with your thick glasses, fedora hat, and solemn face, the spring I moved here, in 2019.

I started out with a cheery “Good morning” as is my habit. After consistently getting no reply, or even a glance, I soon stopped trying, thinking perhaps you had a thing against white ladies walking little dogs in your neighborhood. I know you don’t speak much English; I think perhaps you’re from the Azores, like many in this community. Once in a while, one or two other men will join you, and there is some conversation and laughter, Portuguese. But mostly, you’re there by yourself.

At some point I began quietly saying “Good morning” again. (After all, we see each other nearly every day.) And eventually, I began noticing an almost imperceptible nod of acknowledgement from you. Yay!

Now I walk past and give you a small smile and a nod each morning, and you dip your chin slightly. Progress.

I wonder about your life, though. You sit there on that park bench every day, on the corner, for hours, watching the traffic and the passersby. I wonder what you used to do, and what your life was like when you were a young boy in the Azores, and if you miss your country. I wonder if you have a wife, and if you do, what she does all day while you sit on the park bench. I wonder if your life has been very difficult, or sad; mine has not, and I am filled with gratitude. Perhaps that’s why I always offer a cheery good morning to strangers.

I imagine our lives couldn’t be more different. I wonder about you, and I wonder if you wonder about me.”

Stay tuned for another one of my Book of Alchemy essays. (Maybe I’ll turn them into series for Continuing Wonderment. 💫)

The Book of Alchemy is indeed “a creative practice for an inspired life”— merci mille fois, Suleika Jaouad.

Ginger and friends on the bike path.

Thanks for reading— it’s more appreciated than you know. Clicking on the 💜 means the world to me, sharing or restacking this post is even better, and leaving a little comment is like the best thing ever. 🙏