Journaling - A Way Back to You

The beauty for me has always been in the little moments. I photograph everything and sometimes think I'm drowning in unprinted pictures. I can't help myself though, I'm so drawn to capturing the everyday. I mean honestly, how could I not document the sweet sweet moment above. Light pouring in on this little girl, gazing out at the new fallen snow. Sometimes I feel guilty holding up that phone to take one more pic...

This year I chose to frame the new year within a concept word rather than a full blown resolution. The word "connect" will act as my guide and mantra me through the year. There are only so many hours in a day, and as a mom I feel like the hours spent devoting time and energy towards ones personal practice and passions shrinks considerably. At least if you try to work on yourself and your projects the way that you were once accustomed to. Ahh...there in lies the rub.

As a parent, NOTHING, is once how it used to be. And to save the aspects of yourself that make you shine and perhaps to save your sanity at the same time, you have to find a way to incorporate your interests, goals, and dreams into your parenting. These two ideas may appear at first glance to contradict themselves but I think I may have found a way to begin dovetailing the two. JOURNALING.

Another thing that I've been feeling guilty about is the following. For my son's first two years of life I was pretty religious about writing down a couple lines a day in a journal before going to bed. I used a few words to record highlights from the day. Since having my daughter I have let the journal slip. I started trying to keep one for both of them, I really did. But slowly I let days pass by without writing down a word. I felt so bad about this and kept trying, as sporadically as it might have been. I just recently came to the conclusion that it's okay. Reason being....I am keeping a journal. But this time around the journal is one that is folding into my way of being - it's a somewhat obsessive photographic one.

Nothing is what it was AND nothing is ever what it seems. Just when you start to think that you are failing at something - stop and examine the root of that perceived failure. Sometimes that "failure" exists because you are excelling somewhere else!

JOURNALING

Recording life via written word, sketches, drawings, paintings, photographs, collections, etc.

A journal can take as many forms as there are people to make them. The key is to pick one that is perfectly suited to you and the way you work. I'm working on gathering all the pictures, words, stories, and objects that I've been collecting over the last year and putting them together into a journal. Most of what I am doing right now is nature based and documents the intersection of our lives with the outside world.

I would love to get two going ~ one to document experiences and adventures with the kids. Another for my artistic inspirations, artwork plans, and creative intentions. These two will overlap in many ways I'm sure ~ but to have a lovely tangible book of memory to pick up and flip through and examine is something I'm really interested in.

Anyone can use a journal for any passion project. Maybe you don't have a passion project but would love to figure out what dreams to chase or what secret passion lies within. Journal it out of yourself! Trust yourself and you'll be surprised what your subconscious might reveal. If all the acts of journaling I mentioned above allude you, find a different way. Clip pics from magazines that speak to you, write down newspaper headlines, or phrases from a book you are reading. Write down a highlight / or wish from each day. Whatever it is ~ do it consistently and it will start to paint a bigger picture than you ever dreamed imaginable!

In a future post I plan on digging a little deeper into journaling while out on the trail (with little ones in tow!). I also want to talk about recording styles. So look for that post soon....

Here are some journals I've kept in the past and ones that I've found for inspiration. Enjoy! ~

This is a book I made in grad school that played with the concepts "ethereal vs. corporeal".

This is an old diary of my grandmother's and while not technically my journal, it is a journal that I have drawn a lot of inspiration from. In the photograph here I'm holding up the last postcard I received from her.

Fiona Watson is a wonderful source of inspiration as well ~ loose leaf journaling with found objects.

Susan Bowers, oh my. Love, love, love her book art and nature imagery.

Kolby Kirk, hiking, journaling, and blogging. Awesome.

While this particular image came from a site that was in a different language (and I cannot reference it) I still had to share because it is gorgeous. I reminds me of how I've been working lately too - sketching from samples brought inside.