Writing the Landscape of Self

Consider:  Where have you felt most at home?  Where do you feel comfortable in an environment?  Where do you feel you came from?

Use your curiosity and imagination to create a landscape of self.  List feelings as fast as you can. Begin with:  despair, joy, loneliness, fullness, confusion. contentment, silliness, seriousness, boredom, excitement.

Next, list landscape-related words: mountain peak, valley, hill, pebble, beach, seaside, waves, twig, leaf, desert cactus, swamp, meadow, fence, garden pond, creek, sky, prairie.

Combine your feelings with landscape imagery.

Open with, I COME FROM. . .  You might come from mountains of silliness, a swamp of seriousness, a twig of sarcasm, a tornado of anxiety, prairies of delight.

Add colors, sounds, scents, tastes and textures.

After you've collected imagery, do a freewrite.  Then, go in and circle the images that mean the most to you.  Where will you wander for further development?