New journal pages in the shop

I've just posted five new printable guided journal pages in the shop!

The first two look a little like this:

You'll find all five here, where they are available individually or as a set, and all pages include both a colourful and colour-free file. I hope you'll love these pages as much as I do.

For my next project, I think I'll switch gears for a bit, just to take a quick break from journal writing. I really want to try creating an infographic. It will give me an opportunity to practice my hand lettering and to try to distill an idea down to basic components. I'll let you know how it goes!

After that, it's back to journal pages. I've got a bunch of ideas for two new sets -- one to continue the current series in my shop and one for kids! I have lots of fun, new ideas and (as always) tons of prompts. I'm really excited to see where these new adventures take me.

What are you working on these days?

More good things

Good things

What's on your list?

Perspective

So, there I was last week, humming along, feeling like things were okay, thinking that everything was mostly under control. I may have even had a few daring moments of, "Oh yeah, I've got this." (You know, in reference to life and stuff.)

Then someone I admire offered a bit of unexpected, unsolicited advice. It caught me completely off guard and within about three minutes, I was second guessing my entire existence.

Since then, as the sting gradually fades, I've been thinking about how often I turn to journal writing as a way to sort through my insecurities. There is a helpful distance to be found in the act of turning worries into words and placing them on the page. Once there, I can contemplate them almost from a third person's point of view. I can walk away for awhile if I like. (They'll keep.) When I'm ready, I can think about how to move forward, from a place of perspective. I can get back to humming along with life (and stuff).

Lightning round questions for you

I'm right in the middle of work on the next five journal pages. They'll be available via instant download, just like the last five. To pass the time until the new batch of pages is ready, how about a quick lightning round?

futuristic or prehistoric? spinning round and round or jumping up and down? coat check or valet parking? cliff or canyon? footprint in the sand or pawprint in the snow? missing a deadline or forgetting a birthday? carrot cake or banana cream pie?

Bridging the gap

When my daughters were quite young, a wonderful teacher once suggested that I could try to lessen any apprehension they might feel about spending the day at school by bridging the gap between drop-off and pick-up. I could remind them that even though we'd be apart while they were at school, we'd be together again soon.

Such a simple thing, common sense really, but it made such a difference that I find myself doing it all the time now, making a conscious effort to fill the void between now and later. Instead of ending conversations with "Goodbye," I'm much more likely to say, "See you tonight," or "See you next Tuesday," or even, "Talk to you soon." My friends and family may not even notice it, but I love the sense of continuity that a few words can evoke.

It occurred to me today that journaling is another excellent bridge for life's gaps. In addition to being a boundless repository for past and current events, journaling offers a remarkable opportunity for forward thinking. Writing about my plans, the future I envision, and always reminding myself that there are successes, big and small, just a few steps ahead, are my ways of using journaling to bridge the gap.

New pages in progress

Thought I'd share one of the prompts from a new set of pages in the works:

One place I love to visit in spring: the arboretum on campus at our local university. There are always brand new baby ducks taking dips with their parents in the vernal pool that forms after the spring thaw.

One thing I love to eat in summer: anything fresh off the barbecue!

One thing I love to do in fall: set new goals. The beginning of the new school year always feels like a great opportunity to make grand plans.

One sight I love to see in winter: snow-covered cityscapes.

How about you?

Writing it down

I've recently taken up regular exercise and, wow, do I have a long way to go before I can make any claims about my general fitness. At about the halfway point this morning, I was seeing stars.

It's no surprise, I guess, that my prompt writing and journaling today have veered toward themes of perseverance and goal setting. There's something powerful about turning goals (and setbacks) into words on a page, isn't there? Goals can be whittled down to their essentials, then divided into manageable, achievable steps. Possibly even more importantly, setbacks become part of the story rather than the end of the story.

Daydreaming

I've been working on lightning rounds for the next batch of pages in my new journal collection. Have I ever told you how much I adore writing lightning round questions? Of course I have. Too many times to count, probably.

It's pretty awesome indeed to have a legitimate excuse for daydreaming, right in the middle of the day, for letting my mind wander as far as it will go and back again.

From today's wanderings: getting dressed for the day ahead or undressing after a long day? walking arm-in-arm or hand-in-hand? toothpaste or soap? napkin or coaster? menu or mail order catalogue?

One thing I know for sure

I'm almost certain that's a journal prompt I've used before: One thing I know for sure. It sounds quite familiar. (I don't look back on old pages very often, have I ever told you that? It's because I've set myself the goal of generating new prompts for each new project and I'm almost superstitious about avoiding completed pages when I'm working on new stuff. There's bound to be overlap here and there and occasional unintentional duplication, but even then, I try to approach core themes and ideas from as many different angles as I can imagine.)

Which brings me to my latest project and the title of this post. One thing I know for sure is that creating guided journals (and keeping journals, too) connects me to all the things I think are important in life: the people we share our lives with, the day-to-day events that become our adventures, the goals we set, the accomplishments we celebrate, the failures we try to learn from, the challenges we overcome.

I love the ever-evolving sense of discovery that journaling affords. I love that journaling can be deadly serious or completely ridiculous. It can be honest and heartbreaking and silly and soulful -- each in turn or all at once. I love the depth and breadth of journaling -- that it can be whatever I need it to be to help me make sense of myself and my world.  I love that I can keep my journals forever.

Lately, I've been working on new pages. Five of them. I stopped numbering them as I have in the past and gave them titles instead. Here's Wild and precious life (from Mary Oliver's quote) for example:

And The bright side:

I've decided to discontinue revisions of my original collection of journal pages and work on new ones instead. I've kept the outer borders from the first six revised journal pages, but the insides are all new.

The new pages have been posted in my shop, both individually and as a multi-page set of five. They're instant downloads now, so that you can start journaling right away, and each page includes two files - one with colour and one without - so that you have the choice of whether to add your own colour.

I have several more pages in the works and I'll list them soon, too.

It feels so good to be back at it. That's one thing I know for sure.