How was your day?
a small story re-frame for talking about our days
It’s a simple question.
A question we ask (and are asked) often amongst friends, family, and neighbors.
Yet, this well-meaning question tends to invite shallow responses (“good” – “stressful” – “got through it okay”) that are quick, generalized, and framed by the “big picture” of a day.
The richness of any day lives in its morsels and moments.
To get below the surface and connect with the robust, small soils of our days, we can ask questions that invite a different frame for story.
Perhaps:
Did you find anything small (or surprising) today?
What’s still swirling inside you from your day?
Might you paint me a word-picture of one scene from your day?
What’s a glimpse from today that you’d like to (or rather not) jump back inside?
If someone asks you, “How was your day?,” there’s no need to change their question.
Simply pause and connect with one small moment or wisp or wondering from your day and share a story from this rich—true and enough—soil.
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Love, Melissa
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If you try a new kind of question to invite a smaller frame of story, please share what you tried and what happened in the comments. :)
Additional resources:
Small frames for conversations and learning
The Book of Delights and The Book of (More) Delights by Ross Gay
all the small poems and fourteen more by Valerie Worth, illustrated by Natalie Babbitt
tiny, perfect things by M.H. Clark, illustrated by Madeline Kloepper
Things to Do by Elaine Magliaro, illustrated by Catia Chien
Button Snail Hum is a pollination project of Noticing Matters.
Learn more and connect with me: melissaabutler.com | melissa@melissaabutler.com
My wish for Button Snail Hum is that its nourishment is shared widely with educators, parents, caregivers, and those who give so much as they tend to the needs of others (children and adults). Please support its pollination through sharing this post with anyone you feel might find it nourishing. Thank you!
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