Back in the Blog: A Salute to Journals

Life isn’t lived in a straight line or at an even pace. My life with creativity is no exception. Hiccups happen and send it off on tangents.  The occasional yawn spawned by a slump seemingly stops its forward motion. Divergence off the “beaten path” does have merit, however, as does pausing to reconnoiter. Frost knew the value of “taking the road less traveled” – both can offer new perspective.

I’ve been absent from posting in my blog for awhile. Hiccups veered me in other directions and yawns from repetition caused me to rethink how I could feel more excited about what and how I share.

A best friend with paper and pen since I can remember, I took to conversing with myself about my hiccups and yawns via journaling. It’s the best way I know to sort out all that rattles around in my head and heart. As English poet Cecil-Day Lewis said, “We do not write in order to be understood, we write in order to understand.” Despite the handful of authentic friends I hold dear in my life, and the best friend I’m blessed to have in my husband, the blank page is still my most open and unbiased ear.

Through my written chats with my self, I sorted out what I believe I want to share with you in the future. I’d like to expand the topics I write about, share more of my previous writings as well as current musings, perhaps a poem now and again – mine and other’s, exploring what it means at least to me. Make the posts a little less formal and be o.k. with shorter posts on occasion. No worries, there’ll still be the visually creative posts too. Creativity isn’t only about art or decor though. It’s how we deal with all aspects of life. Often we just don’t recognize how we live or respond to life as being creative. Yet everything we do creates the world in which we live individually and is often more broad reaching than just our own little world. Ripples. Perhaps My Life With Creativity posts will bring that awareness more to the forefront and offer food for thought or implementation.

Since I’ve divulged my close rapport with paper and pen, I want to share some of the places we hang out. Decades ago when I first started journaling I used steno pads or multi-subject spiral notebooks. I love lined paper for writing. The neat and tidy in me likes the way it keeps my written lines orderly. I’ve tried journaling on blank pages but it doesn’t feel right to me except for visual art. Those notebooks were lined, but plain and unexciting. Somewhere along the way I bought a fancier journal with a suede-like cover. Immediately my writings seemed more precious, imbued with more importance in that attractive book. Probably the clothes-make-the-man effect.

It was at a Become Your Own Muse workshop in 2001 that I learned how to transform those ugly duckling, hard covered, lined composition books with the squiggly patterned covers into personal journals of utter beauty. In the workshop we poured through stacks of magazines tearing out copious pages with pictures or words that spoke to us individually. Then we cut out the gems from those pages and collaged away to totally transform the covers and spine. I was smitten. It was the beginning of a new love affair. My thoughts could now be written in books covered with visual depictions that inspired and defined me.

These journals are the places I most frequently hang out to reflect, sort out feelings and offer gratitude. Occasionally a poem or delectable piece of prose is born in them. I also have one dedicated solely to writing about finding the sacred in the ordinary – a suggestion from Sarah Ban Breathnach’s, Simple Abundance, and another dedicated for musings about my creativity and visual art. I suppose all these journals are like specialty shops, each one offering, or in this case receiving, unique insights. The visual beauty of all of them makes my happy heart sing.

My paper and pen love affair doesn’t stop there. I’ve become proficient at making up reasons to use journals. There’s the gorgeous sunburst one I bought for a song in T.J. Maxx that I use only for writing down quotes from others, and occasionally my own, that appeal to my soul and sensibilities. There’s the diminutive journal a friend gave me with “Moroccan Mares” artwork by Laurel Burch. It’s got a neat, snap-shut front cover and is dedicated to jotting ideas for my blog posts.

Recently I found yet another treasure at T.J. Maxx, a set of three soft-covered feather journals and a hard-covered narrow spiral lined notepad also with feathers. I couldn’t resist.

The narrow, vertical feather note pad with feathers on both the outside and inside covers has become the place I record words and phrases I want to remember and maybe incorporate into future writings. When I’m reading and come across a word I don’t use but appeals to me, or the turn of a phrase has a nice ring to it, I record them in this book to help solidify them in my mind. I’m amazed sometimes when writing how words that I don’t necessarily use in conversation find their way into my writing. My hope is this specialized lexicon of sorts will help enhance that experience.Steve and I even take journals, the non-fancy, spiral notebook sort, on vacation to record our experiences. I later input our writings in a computer word program, print them out and make a vacation book. The handwritten pages get tossed.

So what IS the point of me telling you all of this? I suppose it’s to encourage you, if you don’t already do so, to find a notebook or journal you’re drawn to and pen or pencil you fancy and do some personal exploration. Befriend the empty page and see what comes of it. In this world saturated with electronic devices and information overload, we can become strangers with ourselves and not be aware of what’s going on at our core. You don’t need to share any of it with anyone. Do it for your own private quest. You may be surprised what you discover. 

I started the post by explaining why I’ve been absent from my blog for awhile, that life has its hiccups and yawns. Writing helped me sort out how to overcome my inertia and give me new direction. Writing helped me heal from my mother’s sudden death 20 years ago. I didn’t need a fancy journal then, the multi-subject notebooks with boring covers worked just fine. It was the doing, the writing and confiding in the page that saw me through. My collection of quotes has a magical power within it. I go back to that journal again and again to find words of encouragement, solace and wisdom for myself and to share with others in cards I send. Our vacation journals, transformed into booklets complete with photos are precious keepsakes. If ever we can no longer travel we can at least recount and relive our fabulous adventures. I almost forgot our year end journals where we record special things we did throughout each year. Those have been invaluable for reminding us of timing on certain events and commemorating our life together. And my newest skinny journal is helping me grow my vocabulary and, hopefully, my word craft.

Long known as a cathartic tool, writing helps me to discover things about myself and situations, to clarify feelings, and ultimately helps shape or create a better life for me, and thereby, maybe even people around me. The beautiful covers feed my need for aesthetic beauty, which is nothing to yawn about.

Posted by carol@mylifewithcreativity.com & filed under Inspiration, Musings. This post has 2 comments.