The Power of Daily Practice

How Showing Up Prepares Us for Both Joy and Grief

What happens when we show up every day to create, even when we do not feel inspired or ready? Poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer has been writing a poem every single day since 2006. What began as a small challenge with friends became a way of living, one that has reshaped how she sees the world and how she meets both joy and sorrow.

A Practice of Attention

Daily practice is a form of paying attention. When we commit to showing up, we begin to notice the small details that might otherwise slip by: the glint of light on water, the sound of a child’s laughter, and the feel of grief pressing at the edges of our day. Over time, attention becomes presence, and presence becomes a way of living awake.

Play and Depth on the Page

For Rosemerry, a poem is less about perfection and more about practice. Each blank page is an invitation to curiosity, play, and discovery. Some poems are lighthearted, others deep and tender, but together they form a tapestry of honesty. The daily return to the page has shown her that authenticity matters more than polish.

Preparing Before We Need It

When Rosemerry’s son Finn died in 2021, followed soon after by the death of her father, the practice she had built became a lifeline. Her poems, she says, are written in the key of grief but with a melody of praise. Because she had already practiced showing up, she had a way of meeting sorrow without turning away. Daily practice had grown the resilience and trust she needed to hold both loss and love.

Living from the Heart

In the end, a daily practice is not only about art or words. It is about learning to live from the heart—to stay open, to connect, and to choose love. When we say yes to the blank page, we are also saying yes to life as it is, with all its paradoxes.

An Invitation

What might it look like for you to begin a daily practice of your own? Writing, silence, art, prayer, a daily nature walk, gardening—whatever form it takes, the act of showing up matters most. 

Listen to the full conversation with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer on the SoulStream Podcast