Blank Pages

Blank pages awaiting my words and thoughts.  This is what a new year brings.

Previous years' journals set aside -- those days and thoughts are in the past now.

Guiding me through the upcoming year will be these thoughts:

I vow to remember that today is a new day

Full of new beginnings and fresh moments.

Today, I will not cling to events of yesterday nor yesteryear

But stay connected with what today brings.

I will not madly pursue my desires at the expense of others

Nor flee from challenging tasks.

I will remain true to the unfolding process of today

Without losing myself in thoughts of what was or what might be.

I will treat today with awareness and sensitivity.

Even in the most ordinary of tasks.

I will apply myself wholeheartedly to the fullness of today

For I know that today holds the resource for authenticity.

- Christopher Titmuss -

Journaling

I have been keeping this journal handy over the past few months. Noting my progress (or lack thereof when that happens) with my latest cloth doll figures.  Reminding myself with notes of what worked and what didn't work.  I've found that reminding myself to write out what I did of a day is a way of slowing down my life - letting me reflect in a way that I was not used to doing.

Several times in the past I've started art journals -- but  have never gotten very far.  I always spent my energy on the making of something and didn't take the time to notate it (at least after the first few entries).  But now I'm working on pieces where I can allocate my time into segments.  By doing this, I find that after each segment, noting my progress - problems - successes is easy to do. 

This year has been quite a change for me in the way I'm working  and what I'm working on.  Truly, I have such a peaceful feeling about what I'm doing right now and how I'm managing it that I wonder what in the world possessed me to work like a mad woman over the past years.  Perhaps I should note this in my journal in BIG GIANT CAPITAL LETTERS!

"Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled -- to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world." - Mary Oliver