journaling

(before we begin--the layouts are not showing in full size, so to see the horizontal layouts in full you need to open them. sorry. i'll try to figure out why...)

Hello! Let's gather round the carpet for story time with Miss Marnie. First go get your apple cider, or your caffeine du jour, whatever you need. Take off your shoes, grab your pillow. Everyone comfy?

When I was 19, I went to Quebec for a spring term in college. I was studying French at Brigham Young University and had realized that I needed a bit of immersion to better my listening skills and to try to not be afraid of speaking. So I signed up to attend the Universite du Laval in Ste. Foy, Quebec. Now before I get all sidetracked telling you how many crepes I ate that summer, or how I watched a young Sarah McLachlan sing acapella at the local music festival, let me get to the part where I meet Jonathan Gould.

So Jonathan was a smartie pants. The kind of intellectual wonder that has no friends in high school but woos all his professors in college! He carried a journal with him and wrote in it often. One day I asked him what he was writing. Just thoughts. Random thoughts. He read me some, and do you know that he wasn't writing in full sentences? No paragraphs? Sometimes his written thoughts ran together, sometimes they didn't. Now I grew up keeping a journal, but somewhere along the line I got the notion that it had to look like a writing assignment. That I needed proper punctuation, transitional sentences, and well organized paragraphs. But here was my witty, intelligent, wise new friend keeping a stream of consciousness journal. Whoa! It was life changing. I don't say that lightly. It really did change my life. That day, I realized that what was important were my thoughts. Rambling. Random. Didn't matter. What did matter was writing it down. There are no rules. It was my journal. If I wanted prose, i could write prose. If poetry suited the mood better, then poetry it was. The importance was that I did it. Whatever "it" felt right that day.

So I am here today to tell you that it doesn't matter if you journal in bullet points. In full paragraphs. Witty. Dry. Happy. Sad. Fonts or handwritten. IT DOESN'T MATTER! Just please write it. Journaling is so overlooked. We don't want to practice. We have flashbacks to grumpy English teachers, or overdue assignments. It ruins the flow of the page. Oh, there are many excuses, but none will suffice when you look back at a page or a photo and can't remember the story behind the day. Oh, you may remember where you went and if you are good with details, you may even remember with whom you went. But will you remember the smell? Will you remember the way you felt? Will you remember how your family responded to what they saw? I recently worked on some pages for Becky Higgin's Kit of the Month. Lavender, my baby, is almost 21 months, and I have neither constructed her pages, nor journaled about the day/week she was born. Do you know that I sat with a photo of Poppy in my hand and couldn't remember what it was she said the first time she held her baby sister? Angry tears streamed down as I struggled to recall those precious moments. When Poppy was born, Nigel held her and said, "Now we are a family!" But do you know how long it took me to that Poppy was actually almost silent with reverence and care as she held a swaddled Lali? Now I can record it on Poppy's big sister page, and Lavender's meeting her big sister page, and then I won't ever have to worry about forgetting again!

So what I leave you with today is permission to journal in any way you would like. It may even go on the back of the layout if it gets in the way of your fancy page. But don't forget to write it. Please. You will never regret it. I promise you.

Here is one that the title and the journaling are one and the same. Is this journaling adequate you ask? Why of course! In one short sentence you learned that Poppy doesn't often stand still. It's something that I am hopeful will change one day!

Same day, different story to be told. This talks about the why my energizer bunny fell asleep on the table. Could I have combined the two stories into one layout? Certainly. But is it wrong that I didn't? Not  at all. No wrong, no right. Whatever you want to write. It's up to you!

 

This layout is for Poppy's book. The journaling fits on a tag. It's not the length that matters.

This is the same photo, but for Lavender's book, so it tells a different story. No rules.

Sometimes it's just a little love letter...

Sometimes it's a list of descriptors...

And sometimes it's the full memory.

Because any write is just right.

Comments

[marnie]

testing testing

[marnie]

testing testing

[Cathy S]

Thanks for both the inspiring words and the layouts. This is hitting close to home as I am working on a layout of random photos of my son at 14 months. I'm so glad I took the time to write a bit about him back in March of '07. Not that long ago, but already I've forgotten he really didn't speak then, but communicated so eloquently with just "eh."

[Winks]

Marnie,
I absolutely adore your work.
I also love that you love white cardstock, I could do every LO on it, but I know it's not the popular choice.
Your children are just darling :)
-Jody

[shellbell78]

I just LOVE this post! Thanks for reminding me how important the random every day things are to write about.

[cathy]

thnk you so much for giving me permission to keep a journal without having to write like i'm a genious. you rock.

[cathy]

see? i can't even type!

[Katie Scott]

super cool stuff & you should link this to your old friend

[elizabeth]

What a wonderful reminder about what it's all about, Marnie. Thank you for that.

[Candice]

Awesome journaling suggestions. Love how you don't limit yourself w/journaling. Adorable LO's, btw!

[Barb]

Oh Marnie, I am LOVING this... you have such a lovely simple style, and your journalling is amazing. I just found an old LO of yours in a special issue, and it made me remember why I LOVE to scrap. Thanks for reminding me once again. :)

[emily pitts]

this post is really personal to me. i have so many pictures of my kids as babies that i don't remember what was happening, why i took the picture. it's why i scrap so many of the everyday moments now, i have a terrible memory. thanks for putting journaling into words like this.

i went to byu too :)

[Cheryl]

I love this post Marni. I am bookmarking it and will use it as a reminder. I'm a little verklempt :)