Bloom Scrolling
a writing prompt for you + two writing opportunities
Welcome to Writing in Company. This is a community for you, whatever your experience with writing. It’s an invitation to write about what matters—grief, gratitude, grace, and more. In an off-kilter world, using our words can help us stay centered and move toward healing and wholeness. Writing in company with others saved me once. Let’s keep writing now, alone and together, and trust our words to help us see and say what matters.
For about the hundredth time, I removed Facebook and Instagram from my phone this week. That itch to consume whatever the algorithms throw my way is too habitual for me to resist, especially in a time of deepening alarming headlines. I can still get to my accounts on my laptop, but that takes enough of an extra step or two that it means I am not starting and ending my day with mindless or despairing scrolling on a tiny screen.
I don’t think I have outrageous hopes or expectations for social media. I need to interact a bit with my church accounts. I actually want the news, and to be a well-informed, engaged citizen, and to be part of the future of democracy if we can keep it. I truly like to know when my church and writing friends post something smart or soulful about what’s going on, or share ideas for how to show up for my neighbors. I also don’t want to miss photos of people’s new puppies, and celebrations, and grandchildren.
But I haven’t yet perfected the art of curating my feed, if it’s even possible anymore. The things I need and want to see come mixed with a whole lot of ads now, and even more outrage—some of it deserved, but usually not productive. I catch myself staring at my phone, breathing shallowly, deepening the frown line between my eyebrows, wondering how many minutes I just lost to despair and anger. Doom scrolling, at least for me, is a real thing.
So I was struck by a phrase I learned recently in a newsletter from writer Shawna Lemay, whose Transactions with Beauty posts always give me something lovely to consider. She pointed back to another source, and they pointed back to the original source who shared the term “Bloom Scrolling.”
Bloom Scrolling is a practice of consciously planting what will bloom for us in our fields of attention. Why not curate and nurture our digital lives so we scroll for what blooms rather than what serves up doom or gloom? Instead of mindless doom scrolling, we can intentionally look for what we find beautiful, hopeful, and creative, and plant those seeds in our digital lives, too. This is not a new idea, but it is a timely one. And I’m not a gardener, but I think it must be like planning your spring and summer garden in the dead of winter: choosing seeds, deciding where to plant them, and then later, pulling the weeds that inevitably sprout up so the seeds you intentionally chose and planted will actually bloom.
So here’s my Bloom Scrolling question for you: Who are the people you look to, or follow, or trust, as sources of nature, photography, poetry, art, design, and other beautiful things in your online or digital world? I may still ditch FB and IG completely, but if I do decide to intentionally curate my feed, I’d love some new artists, writers, and creative folk to follow.
a writing prompt
What are some beautiful “blooms” you have scrolled (or strolled) past recently? Do they stay in your memory long enough to capture on the page? Make a list or, if you are feeling up to it, scroll briefly through your social media or your recent photos or texts looking specifically for something blooming beautiful. Then write about it.
two writing opportunities for you
I’m teaching a four-week online course for Columbia Theological Seminary’s Center for Lifelong Learning, called “Mourning Pages: Writing as Spiritual Practice for Grief and Healing.” The course is designed for those who want to write through grief themselves, as well as those who might want to host similar writing groups in their own ministry settings. We will meet on Zoom on four Wednesdays— February 25, March 4, 11, and 18—from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM ET with additional asynchronous readings and participation. Space is available, but register soon. Find out more here: Mourning Pages
Because I’m prepping for the Columbia course, I’m not leading any of the AWA Write Around the World workshops this coming February, but I can highly recommend them! All will use the method in which I was trained to lead workshops, which honors a writer’s unique voice in a supportive environment. Some great teachers, on all different days and times and subjects, all on a donation basis. Check it out here: Amherst Writers & Artists
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Each week I share some ideas and a writing prompt, meant to be jumping-off points. Use the prompts however you like—to journal, to draft a writing project, as prayer ideas, or for another creative endeavor. If this one doesn’t resonate, look back through the archive for more. Clicking the heart to like this post helps keep my writing prompts visible and my own writer’s heart grateful.
You my friend offer one of my trusted places to often ponder beauty and joy. I love receiving your Wednesday emails. Thank you.
Another lovely observation. Hum, in my "Reels" feed are dozens of sailboat videos. I don't know how they got there, but I love watching racing boats tacking around a windward mark, then hoisting giant spinnakers. I also appreciate keeping up with real "friends" who have shared a picture of their Italian dinner, or cat, or dog. I subscribe to three newspapers. From my home town Daily Press, I skim the headlines from the first page and read the obits. Some of those dead people are related to some of my living and dead people. Blest be the tie that binds. From the NYTimes I skim headlines and read some arts stories. (Rachel plays games and reads recipes.) I read all the headlines and most of the stories from The Paper of Burke county. On YouTube I follow The Salisbury Organist; he's quirky and unpacks some of the hymn tunes that run in my blood. On Substack, I follow Andrew Barron essays on public education and you. I also get sucked into doom scrolling and waste too many hours reading about the one whose name will not be spoken. Your observations shed light and bring healing. They renew my focus on what is honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, and worthy of praise . . . I stole that from Philippians, but it's true. Thank you Julie. Your posts take time and energy. And they are so looked forward to....