If you wish to attend the read around (t’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional). Note: If you registered already, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:


Next Read-Around is 9/7/23 at 5:00 PM PST

How It Works:

  1. Read the poem 

  2. Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you

  3. Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…

  4. Use the selection of prompts below

  5. Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…

  6. Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes

My Thoughts

If you are looking for a writing prompt, Julia, Fehrenbach’ers poem, The Most Important Thing, is chock-full of them. The title alone could keep you busy for weeks because you can rif on “the most important thing…” generally or apply it to any topic or context you wish. Then, as you enter into the poem, every line is an invitation.  Personally, I love poems that inspire us to treat ourselves more kindly or, at least, to imagine the possibility of it: the possibility that there might actually be a welcome home party inside of us, waiting for our arrival.

Fehrenbacher goes beyond the imaginal, casting her poem in the present tense: “I am making a home inside myself.” Repeat that statement as a loving mantra and find out where it takes you. What quiet patch of sunlight or fiercely friendly place might you wander into if you throw your arms open to the whole of you? What might you do in the loving company of yourself if you made your residence inside into a shelter of kindness? You can be the interior designer, the landscaper of your own heartland. You can wave the magic wand of your imagination and create an inner world that supports your thriving, a garden where grace blooms in grand and glorious abundance.

The Most Important Thing

I am making a home inside myself. A shelter
of kindness, where everything
is forgiven, everything allowed – a quiet patch
of sunlight to stretch out without hurry,
where all that has been banished and buried
is welcomed, spoken, listen to — released.

A fiercely friendly place I can claim as my very own.

I am throwing arms open
to the whole of my self – especially the fearful,
faultfinding, falling apart, unfinished parts, knowing
every seed and weed, every drop
of rain, has made the soil richer.

I will light a candle, pour a hot cup of tea, gather
around the warmth of my own blazing fire. I will howl
if I want to, knowing this flame can burn through
any perceived problem, any prescribed perfectionism,
any lying limitation, every heavy thing.

I am making a home inside myself
where grace blooms in grand and glorious
abundance, a shelter of kindness grows
all the truest things.

I whisper hallelujah to the friendly
sky, watch now as I burst into blossom.

—Julia Fehrenbacher: https://www.juliafehrenbacher.com

Prompt Ideas

  1. Journal or write a poem from the stem sentence: The most important thing….

  2. The the prompt above and apply it to different time periods or phases of your life. How has ”the most important thing” to you changed over time?

  3. Journal or write a poem about making a home inside yourself. What kind shelter would it be?

  4. Journal or write a poem using the metaphor of “a shelter of kindness.” Or replace kindness with other virtues or acts (shelter of benevolence; shelter of generosity; shelter of comfort, etc.)

  5. Journal or write poem welcoming something that has been banished or buried in you. What might help you embrace or release it.

  6. Flesh out the idea of a fiercely friendly place.How can friendly ness by fierce? What in your life could benefit from a fiercely friendly place? How might a fierce friendliness actually show up in your life or your relationships?

  7. Who or what shows up when you throw your arms open to the whole of you?

  8. As usual, write about anything else in the poem or in life that inspires you.