Summer Journaling

In classic entrepreneur (and ADHD) fashion, I have too many projects up in the air, and this blog fell off my radar for a bit. I often feel like I need to have Content here - well researched, a good arc, useful info for people to apply. But, really, this blog is for me.

There's so little content I see online anymore that hasn't been monetized to the nth degree, whether it's ads or courses or paid newsletters. Which - get paid for your work! That's fine. But this blog is not my work. (My work is elsewhere.) But it is hard to get out of that mentality of "creating content," and instead think of it as recording thoughts. Is it even necessary to share my thoughts online? (Probably not.) But I grew up with Livejournal, so I guess there's an internal drive to blog or something.

The irony of writing a blog about more "analog" or offline things doesn't escape me either. When I have time off from work projects, the last thing I'm interested in is sitting in front of my computer more. I journal, I read, I drink tea. But, somehow, I still like the idea of sharing a bit of these things, even if it's shouting into the void a bit.

Now that we're getting more hot weather, I will have more time on my hands to be inside and write. I have a few health conditions that are made worse by heat and (especially) humidity, so once it gets hot, I hibernate inside. (Is it still hibernating if it's from the heat?) Spring and fall, I try to be outside a bit more, if the weather agrees.

This summer has been a bit of an odd one for me; last summer, I had a bit of a...catastrophic health situation (what a Midwest way of phrasing that), so this summer has loomed large in my mind. While there's no reason for my particular health catastrophe to repeat in the same way, and it's unlikely it will, it still was/is always back there. And, thankfully, our summer has been a bit on the cooler side throughout June, so I have had a reprieve so far. But now the weather is heating up, so I expect I'll be inside a lot more for the next few months.

I occupy a bit of an odd place, health-wise. Compared to people who are well, I am very much unwell, and will never be well again. But, compared to people with similar conditions, I am doing quite well. So, it feels selfish to complain, yet absolutely impossible to pretend like nothing is wrong.

Journaling Process

I finished my A6 journal from last year and started a new one in May. I have many (many, many) unfilled, unfinished notebooks, so being able to finish one is a big point of pride for me! But, my journaling practice had been getting a bit stale; I have been finding comfort in following mostly the same routine in my daily life, and I only have the capacity for work most weekdays.

I have a planner for my daily activities, so I didn't need to replicate that info in my long-form journal. And, I had started to ruminate a bit - on what I was working on, what I wasn't working on (but needed to be), what I was worried I was forgetting. I gradually journaled less and less, skipping several days in a row.

So, I set up a new framework for my journal entries, or maybe a bit of a new intention: observation, quote, reflection.

Observation: Each day, I write a bit about what I observe outside - what's blooming, what the weather is like, what animals I saw. We had moved our electric tea kettle in front of a window, and I have gotten in the habit of looking outside for a few minutes while my tea was steeping; now, I try to record what I see. I also sometimes write about observations about the tea I am drinking, if it's new (or just interesting).

Quote: If I find a good quote or idea during the day, I will also write it down. Sometimes I will go looking for a quote, if I am looking for some inspiration. If I have time, I try to find the backstory to the quote - what caused the person to say it, what was happening at that time. For example, I found a great quote from a commencement speech by Joan Didion:

"I'm not telling you to make the world better. I'm just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment."

It was from her commencement speech at UC Riverside in 1975, referred to as "Planting A Tree Is Not A Way Of Life." When I looked it up, I found that it was routinely referred to as one of the best commencement speeches, but wasn't available online until 2022, after her death. (You can find it here.) There were some very interesting parallels in the speech to our present day, too! So, not only do I like the quote, but I like knowing a bit of the story behind it too.

Reflection: Sometimes I add a photo to the page, especially if something is blooming. (I have the Instax Mini printer, so it fits easily in the journal.) Then I have space for reflection - whether it's thoughts about the quote, or something else. On days when I have less energy, I do things a bit more bullet journal style. This can easily slide into the ruminating I am trying to avoid, or the day-to-day record I have elsewhere. But it is a flexible section. I do have a list of prompts I can use if my brain is stuck! Here are a few, which I can pick based on the time of day:

Morning
What am I carrying in from yesterday that I haven't put down?
What's the one thing that, if it happens, makes today feel complete?
Who am I likely to meet today, and how do I want to meet them?

Evening
What did I handle better today than I would have a year ago?
Where did I spend energy on something outside my control, and could I tell at the time?
What did I do purely out of habit today that I've never actually decided to keep?

The evening questions are a bit Stoic-inspired, but more on that some other time.

Materials

My long-form journals are currently Leuchtturm 120 gsm - the hardcover is nice, the paper doesn't bleed through - with a dot grid. The pen I most often use for it is my Pilot Metropolitan with Sailor Shikiori ink in Miruai (seaweed indigo, according to JetPens). It's such a pleasing combo that I haven't changed much!