Today’s Prompt – Recap HAWMC. You did it! 30 posts in 30 days. Which was your favorite prompt? Which was the most difficult? Which ideas will you reuse? Who was your favorite fellow blogger?

YES!  I did it!  With one of the roughest months in my life, I still did it!  I didn’t even use the 2 off days they said I could have!  I accomplished something I set out to do!  Woot!

I’m so pleased that WEGO Health gave us this opportunity.   They have done so much to bring Health Activism to the forefront, in a very short amount of time.  Thank you WEGO Health!

WEGO Health wants some feedback to this monthly challenge.   I probably gave them much more information than they need.   I’d love to hear what you about my different posts for the month!!

Which was my favorite prompt?  I admit my favorite post of the month was not one I thought would be my favorite prompt…but as with many I took my own interpretation of it.  (and I think that’s a great way to make a prompt work for you…change it enough to make it speak to you.)  The prompt was to create a theme song for my blog.  Since I have hearing difficulties I originally thought…I can’t do this.  However, I decided to use this opportunity to bring attention to my Sounds of Silence…the tinnitus I hear every day, even if I can’t hear anything else.  You can find this post here.  My Sounds of Silence. I’m especially proud of this post.  My friend Vincent Morrison (who worked on the sound production for me) and I had a hard time putting it all together, but I think it shows how different tinnitus can be for people.

One of the bonus prompts I really liked was the first one. “I used to be….but I’m not any more.”  This put forth a lot of my feelings but still I was able to leave a positive spin on it.  This was the first prompt I used, and think it was a great starting point for the month.

Which was the most difficult?

This is a hard question to answer.  Do they mean hard as in emotionally hard to write, or hard because I didn’t like it?

I decided to do a list of the prompts I found difficult to work on because they hit a nerve….and then a list of prompts that were hard simply because I could not get into them.  This doesn’t mean they were bad prompts, simply that I had a hard time interpreting them to suit me.  That’s one reason I really liked receiving the Bonus Prompts!

Prompts that were difficult because of feelings they brought up:

• Letter to 16 year old me.
• Learned the Hard Way
• 5 dinner guests
• 5 challenges/ 5 small victories.

Prompts I simply couldn’t get into.  I know others who really loved these prompts, they were just difficult for me to get started on.  (again, why I liked having the option of the Bonus Prompts)

• Health Time Capsule  (I read some great posts from this prompt, it simply wasn’t one I could get going one
•  Ekphrasis post   (I tried and tried to do this prompt, I thought it would be easy for me because I am an artist, but my post just kept getting longer and longer.  I’d have to practice this type of writing to be able to do this post…and well I didn’t have time for that.   But again, others did an excellent job!)
• Pinboard…I don’t like Pinterest.  I find that a lot people do not give credit to the creator of the images on this site.  I would have liked this post better if it just said to list images.  But again, a personal feeling on my side.  Lot’s of people LOVE Pinterest, and that’s great.
• Madlib Poem – This just really didn’t do it for me.  I it took so long to fill in all the words, then the poem came out not meaning much.  It’s great for a comic day, a little relief from talking health all the time, but I was confused.  And with the brain fog I have with my illness, I was unable to enjoy this like I thought I might.
• 3rd person post – I tried to write this post, but found trying to talk in the 3rd person made my post way too long.  I guess I’m just not good at this unless it’s a short piece, like I did for the 6 sentence post. I guess I’ve been writing in the first person so long I’m a bit rusty on this type of writing.  This does give me great insight into that part of me, something I need to work on.
• Health tagline – I think most people with blogs have a tagline already, and if not…I wasn’t sure how much more I could do with this prompt.  It felt like a one or two line post.  If you use this prompt again, I think it should have a bit more to it.  Not sure exactly what, but this was missing something….at least for me.

Prompts I liked that I might use again…

• 6 sentence story…I might do this again, it’s a great jumping off point.  I loved telling a short piece about me that just came out.  I’m glad I did this prompt, I did a happy story, not anything to do with health.  I think we all need a break sometimes.
• Word Cloud – but I’ll take my own take on it.  I’d rather do a collage I created, and will probably do more of those.

******I would use many of the prompts from the liked or difficult pile again…with some changes, and some from the Bonus Prompts.*****

Bonus Prompts I liked, I used some of these but didn’t use all of them.  (I may use some of these in the future.)

• Best doctor’s or hospital stay.
• Happy Place
• Daily Schedule
• In a perfect world
• I keep writing because….
• personify your health…I liked this because I did a creative approach….that’s the good thing about a lot of these prompts…many you can get inventive with.
• I Loved the Prompt.–I used to be…but I’m not any more  (this gave me a great outlet, and I shared with many family and friends.  It showed things I can no longer do, but I still was able to put a positive spin on it.)  This was a great first post for the month for me!

I would like to once again thank WEGO Health for this opportunity.  And for all the hard work they have done.  This is only the second HAWMC they have sponsored, and I think they did a wonderful job.   (one suggestion, perhaps you would like to put out a questionnaire for the participants to suggest some prompts, this would give you a greater pool to work from, and would hopefully provide you with lot’s of great ideas!!)

Who was your favorite fellow blogger?

Maureen from Sunshine and Chaos was a constant support to me thought this past month  Encouraging me, and keeping me going, even through the rough spots.

Phylor, from Phylor’s blog was also a great support.  Always encouraging.

I’ve found a couple of new favorite bloggers through this adventure.  Actually they found me first, but I’m glad they did.

Scattered Feathers – she’s a new blogger who really deserves some attention.  Check her out, she’s honest and raw, if you like my style, you’ll love hers.  She has hearing loss, and suffers from mental illness.  Give her your support.

And one more new follower I have been learning a lot from.  Brain Injury Self Rehabilitation  this blog is written by a nurse who was brutally attacked by a patient, this attack caused a brain injury.  She is on a mission to help others realize there are more people out there with Brain Injuries, and Brain disorders – we do not need to suffer alone.  There is hope and help.  She gives sound advise, and encouragement.  If you have a brain disorder or know someone who does, I highly recommend checking out this blog.

there are many more people I could acknowledge, but there simply isn’t room, and they did just ask for one.