Editor’s Note: This is another installment in our series “The Journal Speaks Back” wherein Menomonie resident John Wilkerson invites you to join him in his love for journaling.

I have a stone box my mother gave me. The alabaster shifts between billowed white and soft green. Its top is pierced and carved with a lattice. Brass hinges bind the lid. To grasp the box in my hands is to feel its crisp edges mark my skin. The box has never rested with ease within my grip. It is the best present I have ever received.

The box held pennies.

Three hundred sixty five pennies.

For a year, my mother rose at dawn and prayed for me, and when she did, she placed a penny inside the box.

Her invisible dedication of meaning was bestowed into a small, quiet object.

One penny, one prayer, one thought.

I received the gift for Christmas along with a note that told me of her love and about the pennies, her morning ritual, her faith.

A penny is nothing. A year is everything.

I have always thought that objects could, maybe if we truly believed, hold a person’s magic or their presence.

My mother’s magic lives with the box, as does her faith and my memory of her.

That is the secret, isn’t it? The objects are not sacred. The memories they hold are.

Show, Don’t Tell for Journal Writing

The above article about the box uses sensory detail and lived moments to let meaning emerge on its own, which is a core journaling skill. By describing the feel of the alabaster box and the simple ritual of placing each penny, the piece shows the emotion instead of naming it.

The reflection leans on memory and imagery to carry the weight of the story. Journaling becomes more powerful when the writer lets objects, gestures, and small details speak for themselves.

Today’s Prompt

Write about an object that carries emotion for you. Describe it through its details, its history, and the memories it holds. Let the meaning reveal itself through what you notice.

John Wilkerson works most days writing and fiddling with his computer. His new, old, home in Menomonie is constantly subjected to DIY mayhem. His background includes ghost writing, newspaper reporting, and a stretch in marketing and advertising. John may be contacted at:  [email protected]