Reset, Reboot, and Recalibrate for the New Year

For several years I have hosted a Haiku Challenge each January — an invitation to join me and others in an intentional reset of mindfulness as begin a new year. For me, this year the Haiku Challenge seems even more essential as we are still in a state of navigating the ebb and flow of COVID-19 in our society. As we continue to try to make sense of how to maintain safety while remaining connected we are in a state of continual recalibration. For me, dropping into the process of observing and then creating a haiku based on that observation is calming, healing, and helps me to form new ways of recalibrating myself in relationship to the world around me. The Haiku Challenge is meant to be a gentle reset, reboot, and recalibration into 2022. Join me and friends from around the globe in this 31-day challenge!

Here are the guidelines:

Write one haiku a day for the month of January. The Japanese form of poetry called haiku is simple yet profound and pares down our observations to the essence. A haiku is a short sensory thought/poem that captures a feeling or image through words. You may choose to simply observe and write three lines or use the familiar structure of 5-7-5 format ( the one that you may remember from elementary school...first line is 5 syllables, second line is 7 syllables and third line is 5 syllables for a total of a 17 syllable poem/thought.)

Mindfulness is about paying attention to the present moment and so is the writing of a haiku. If you would like to share your haiku, we will be using the hashtag #haikuchallenge22 to aggregate the haiku. I will be posting daily to Twitter (@pamressler), Instagram (@stressresources), Facebook (StressResources), as well as to my blog (StressResources.com/blog). You may also paste your haiku into the comment section of each day's haiku on my blog. I can't wait to read them!

Happy Haikuing,

Pam

#HaikuChallenge21 -- 500 Daily Haiku

It began on March 17, 2020 — as lockdowns started, fear over this new thing called “COVID” multiplied by the minute and I began writing a daily haiku as an antidote to what I was experiencing. Today marks 500 daily haiku and it’s time to reset, recalibrate and reflect. While I will not be writing a daily haiku (until January 2022 when I will write one each day for the month of January during my yearly #HaikuChallenge), you can be sure I will still share my observations, musings, and photos on my blog and on social media. To those who have followed along for the past 16+ months…thank you. I am grateful to you for companioning with me as we navigated and continue to navigate the strange pandemic world we are living in. Haiku has made me more mindful, more present, and more grateful for noticing the “ordinary” — that truly becomes the “extraordinary” when viewed with haiku eyes.

five hundred haiku

my pandemic poetry

time to say adieu