Someone asked me about journals after reading my blog about journaling. Brush Dance came into my life when I was buying greeting cards for my shop. I soon added journals even though I was not keeping a daily journal at the time. I was only using them when I traveled. I love their journals because they lay flat (spiral or cloth edged) and they have a lined page faced with a blank page which is great if you like to sketch or doodle. The blank page is also good for pasting in post cards, tickets, menu covers, a piece of paper lace etc. You get the idea; the little extras that get lost in a drawer. When you come across it you can’t remember what the heck it is or why you saved it. In a journal, the opposite page reminds you what it is from and smiling, why you kept it.
Brush Dance journals also have quotes that may touch you to go a little deeper to dig out words that convey a thought, feeling, or a bit that once recorded, will bring meaning to you when you read it later.
Surprisingly, when the shop was sold and I found much more time for reflection, I began to buy the journals for myself. Bunches at a time, because they are also wonderful casual gifts (good to have on hand) that may create un-casual reactions; like nudging someone into slipping into a habit of journaling. How bad can that be? And journaling won’t add inches to your waistline or muddle your brain. Actually, it helps to clear the mind, dust off the cobwebs up there, and return moments to you when you read them later.
Recently while working on a memoir, I re-read ten years of my journals, looking for items relating to my subject. I just don’t carry all that stuff in my head anymore, when I can pull it up from a journal.
PS: Referring back to yearly resolutions—-I read in UK’s Mature Times that the ancient Babylonians made promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts. Hmmmm. I wonder if they broke their resolutions.
