THE GOALS COVID-19 Journal.
This time of quarantine can be view only as constrictive - or as an opportunity for growth.
Who is this for?
Anyone who’s feeling like they need structure, connections, and purpose during these uncertain times. It’s for kids who have experienced GOALS expeditions and for those who have not. It’s for parents and friends. It’s for everyone.
Why?
This will help us grow. Journaling is a powerful reflection tool, and can be an enjoyable interruption from the fear and anxiety that may feel overwhelming.
This will guide us. It gives new purpose to those of us feeling a bit rudderless, as our accepted school and work norms have been transformed or taken away.
This will connect us. Common activities bring us together at a time when we feel separated. We will share themes and ideas from journal prompts during our Tuesday and Friday GOALS online community chats. If you’re not participating in those yet, consider joining us. Lastly, this will be designed for the GOALS community and by the GOALS community. If you have great ideas for daily prompts, email us here.
This will document. Imagine if you could read a grandparent’s "Spanish Flu pandemic journal" right now? What was that part of history really like? What were they feeling?? What if you could share the same with your grandchildren. You can. The significance of what we are all living through should not be minimized.
How does it work?
While we’d love to produce and print journals like the ones kids use in our river expeditions, the time required to print and order them makes this prohibitive. We want to begin right away. Therefore, we’ll be sending a prompt every morning to those who sign up at the bottom of this page.
Ideally, you’ll find a notebook or journal you can devote to this. With online meetings, online school, even online grocery shopping these days, we’re all suffering from too much screen time. You can count on an email every day at 6:30am with the daily prompt / activity- grab a pen and start writing / drawing / dreaming. We’ll begin on April 3 and continue through at least April 30.
I want in. How do I participate?
It’s so easy. Just submit the form below, find a notebook or blank journal, and watch your email.
The Archive.
If you’re jumping in late, or just need to access pages from previous days, they’re all here.
Introduction
Daily Journal Prompts.
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Links and Supplements.
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The focus of today's journal prompt is to help us all recognize how our daily actions are defining who we are during this pandemic. Are we existing mainly in a zone of fear, a zone of awareness, or a zone of growth? Is this where we want to be living?
Be honest with yourself. Be gentle with yourself. A crucial part of any growth is recognizing where you are and where you want to be. These two might not be the same, and that's OK. If they were, it'd be tough to grow!
The focus of today's journal prompt is to help us all recognize how our daily actions are defining who we are during this pandemic. Are we existing mainly in a zone of fear, a zone of awareness, or a zone of growth? Is this where we want to be living?
Be honest with yourself. Be gentle with yourself. A crucial part of any growth is recognizing where you are and where you want to be. These two might not be the same, and that's OK. If they were, it'd be tough to grow!
Day 3. Who Will I Be?
The focus of today's journal prompt is to help us all recognize how our daily actions are defining who we are during this pandemic. Are we existing mainly in a zone of fear, a zone of awareness, or a zone of growth? Is this where we want to be living?
Be honest with yourself. Be gentle with yourself. A crucial part of any growth is recognizing where you are and where you want to be. These two might not be the same, and that's OK. If they were, it'd be tough to grow!
Day 4. Looking back and looking forward.
Mondays generally mark that start of a new week - a transition from free time with family to business and commitments that take us away from the people and activities we love most. Quarantine Mondays don't feel much different than quarantine Saturdays. Or...do they? Does Monday bring you back to a school/work routine you crave? Does it give you a guilty sense that you should be doing more, even amid hurdles that you're not used to having in your way?
We'll recognize the "unsettled" feeling that quarantine Mondays may bring, and keep today's journaling comfortable by looking back to look forward. Our intentions today are rooted in the writing prompt of Day 3, and our writing prompt is rooted in the fun and creative story you created on Day 2.
Ease into a new week today, and look forward to getting more creative as we move through the week!
Day 5. A day for creative fun.
Monday is in the rear view, and the weather is great. Today is going to be a good day.
Our focus for the journal today is about harnessing the upbeat feeling of sunshine and warmth bring naturally and channeling it into our own creativity. Day 5 is a FUN day that gives the authors, artists, and even film makers inside us a chance to let their talent shine!
Day 6. What If?
After a day of creative fun yesterday, today we introduce the first of several short videos that tie to the daily intention, writing prompt, or both. Although some of these videos may include a very small amount of inappropriate language, we think the impact of their overall message is more important than a foul choice of words - and hope it doesn't offend you.
Our focus for the journal today is about recognizing that although there are obvious negatives to children not returning to classrooms, there are also opportunities for growth and improvement which may not be as readily available among busy academic and athletic schedules. Today, let's focus on a complete experience - in quarantine, in education, and in life.
Day 7. Mapping the Course.
This is an activity I was hesitant at first to promote. The sense of situational awareness and resulting calm it has created for me feels similar to the sense I get when sitting on my boat at camp in the afternoon and studying a map of the canyon.
As a result, I am encouraging you to create your own "map" today. For some, that will involve a graph that charts the COVID death toll - in the world, the country, and your state? Why death toll rather than confirmed cases or even recovered?? Because it is less disputable - it doesn't rely on availability of testing kits or other confounding data. Additionally, it should - and hopefully soon will - show promise.
If this feels too heavy, then jump into the creative prompt today - suggested by GOALS participant Anna Williams. Get outside, find a crack, and be the first to ever map it!
Lastly - while I've been explaining the intentions and daily journal prompts, please don't place any less emphasis on the evening reflections. Share those roses, thorns, buds, and appreciations with someone each night - and ask them to share theirs with you!
Day 8. Shifts Happen.
A week has passed since our first journal entry. In that time, shifts have occurred - around us and inside us. Today, we will look back on our first journal entry and reflect on the shifts that the pandemic has created for our eyes and ears - as well as those that this journal has created for our hearts and minds.
Today also introduces our second film - entitled "Merely Observations." Enjoy looking back and looking forward today. Keep dwelling on the opportunities for awareness, growth, and connection - there are so many for those who seek them.
Day 9. Which Season is Your Heart in?
There are many changes happening in nature right now. Signs of spring are among us - and yet, here in Colorado, a significant late storm enters tomorrow that will bring up to a foot of wet snow. I came across a reading about seasons in one of my favorite books recently, and thought of how the "seasonal changes with us" that we're so accustomed to may be altered this year by other changes we're experiencing. And - just as we behave differently, enjoy different activities, and even think a bit differently in the dead of winter than we do in the heat of summer - it may be very worthwhile to stop and examine which "season" our hearts are in right now as a result of the pandemic.
Enjoy the reading below and the journey it leads you on. If you're feeling creative, get outside today and fill some journal pages with sketches or paintings as well!!
Day 10. Happy Easter!
We all have friends who have experienced "quarantine birthdays" - wishing they could celebrate with friends in ways that social distancing won't allow. Now we all arrive at Easter, a holiday often celebrated with large gatherings - in church, at the community Easter egg hunt, at the home of a relative.
Since we can't gather, let's focus today on the people we wish we could spend more time with. Why do we miss them? What do they bring to our lives, and what do we provide for them in return?
Enjoy the reading for a GOALS expedition journal by Colin Powell, and take today to consider your relationships - with friends you miss, and with the people in your home as you experience the benefits (or challenges) or more time together than you're used to.
Day 11. The River’s Call.
I find so many parallels between "quarantine time" and "river time" - dropping in to natural rhythms that aren't completely dictated by schedule and routine, connecting with those I care deeply about, the gift of time to be curious and creative, etc. While putting together a series of films to help guide writing / discussion prompts for this journal and GOALS Zoom meetings, I came across "The River's Call." Without ever intending to, the paddlers, narrator, and film makers have created something that points out some of these similarities.
Enjoy the short film then spend some time journaling about the 2 questions below - and any other thoughts / emotions / questions that "The River's Call" stirs up in you.
Day 12. The “Newest” New Deal.
We might not all by Isaac Newton or William Shakespeare - but that doesn't mean we can't create meaningful change. Often, out of tragedy and hardship comes great ideas and developments. FDR's administration created The New Deal - a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations between 1933 and 1939 in order to recover from the Great Depression.
What issues have you identified which need change, and have been spotlighted by the pandemic? How can we - as individuals and a community - begin to address those and create a movement?
Day 13. A reading, 3 zones, and some colorful inspiration.
Today, we are:
- replacing the "typical" morning intention exercise with a guided meditation by one of our favorite ARTA river guides that may take you back to a special place in your mind,
- re-visiting the "3 zones" diagram to assess how we're changing/growing through this pandemic, and
- introducing some inspiring work by a river guide/artist that I hope will motivate you to pick up a pencil, paint brush, or some other medium and get creative.
Enjoy!
Day 14. Voices, pro’s and con’s.
Today, we are:
- identifying those "little voices" in our heads - the ones that are self-limiting and create doubt. We're kicking them out.
- creating a pro's and con's list for how this pandemic has impacted us. Is it really all bad?
- give kids the chance to have their artwork featured on ARTA's 2020 t-shirts (and win a free river trip as a result!).
Enjoy!
Day 15. Asking for help & giving thanks.
Today, we are:
- asking for help. We all need it, and yet sometimes we're reluctant to ask for it- to admit we need it. Not today.
- carrying on a long-standing GOALS tradition and writing a letter of thanks - this time, to an unfamiliar recipient and from the confines of home rather than the grandeur of the canyon...but this letter is no less important.
Don't forget about those roses, thorns and buds at the end of the day. Enjoy!
Day 16. Navigating the spaces we thought we knew.
Today, we are:
- taking a hard look at our own space. Is it working? Should we change it?
- introducing ourselves to the idea of "liminal space" - a combination of physical space and mental state that feels simultaneously familiar and unsettled. Sound familiar?
Don't forget about those roses, thorns and buds at the end of the day. Enjoy!
Click to read the blog post introducing liminal space.
Day 17. What makes the important places so important?
Today, we are:
- looking for some volunteers for what promises to be a fun, light-hearted, creative break from the norm in tomorrow's prompt.
- daydreaming our way back to the "important places" - acknowledging why they're so crucial for us, then planning to get there with an important person(s) when the situation allows us to.
Don't forget about those roses, thorns and buds at the end of the day. Enjoy!
Day 18. What have you learned about your expedition team?
Yesterday, we watched "The Important Places" by Forrest Woodward. While watching it - and enjoying the relationship between Forrest and his father, I couldn't help but recognize that important places create a new awareness of the people we're exploring them with. With this knowledge, and the mindset that our journal is focused on making this "more than just a quarantine" - today we'll seek to understand what we're learning about the people we're quarantined with.
Today, we are:
- re-visiting the weekly physical exercise / movement intention we set on April 13.
- identifying things we are learning about the people we're quarantined with. How is this awareness changing your relationship with them??
Don't forget about those roses, thorns and buds at the end of the day. Enjoy!
You’re not too late!
If you’d still like to be a part of the GOALS “MORE THAN JUST A QUARANTINE” journal, just sign up below. You can use the archive above to get caught up - we’re going through at least April 30!