Journaling

When I was younger, I was an avid journaler. I was a quiet kid full of Feelings (as opposed to the slightly less quiet adult full of Feelings I am today) so naturally I turned to journaling, in addition to strange short stories and terrible poetry, to express those Feels.

Nowadays though, journalling has become a less effective means of expressing myself. Go figure- focusing on building my relationships by actually telling people how I feel* and/or creating Things has contributed a lot more to my general happiness/mental wellbeing than writing stuff Top Secretly in a notebook for my eyes only. As I get a little older, journalling seems favorable only as a means to chronicle all the fantastic things I do for, I don't know, future generations or something, because I'm forgetting shit left and right already. Plus, I read this book about Jim Henson and his life as chronicled by the journal he kept, scrawling quick lines of his (ridiculously full and busy) days.

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This book had me completely in awe of Jim Henson. He had an unbelievable amount of what the kids call "hustle" and I will never know how he fit so much into such a- sadly- short life. The book itself has excerpts from his journal along with pictures, blurbs, and other documents to give more background to the things he wrote. It's super interesting and I learned a lot about Jim Henson, someone I thought I knew a lot about already. I highly recommend the book.

Anyway, what I DON'T recommend, is trying to diligently write a few lines every day or every few days because you are NOT Jim Henson. Ok, well maybe you are one of those on the go every second people but since a lot of my time is spent emotionally preparing for things (it looks a lot like sitting on the couch watching old lady shows on TV but I promise it's WORK), my journal tends to be a little boring and repetitive.**

So, needless to say, journalling has most definitely not been on my radar for some time. That is, until I stumbled across Journal Threading. 

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Other than the link I provided above, I've found pretty much no further information about it (though there are links to a Facebook site on the page, as well as one to the Instagram page the above picture was originally found). 

The lowdown is, you set up a 12 inch embroidery hoop with the fabric of your choice, separate it into 12 sections (one for each month of course) with the year in the middle, then doodle whatever the hell you want, whatever small pictorial representation you can think of to represent what went on that month. 

I absolutely love this idea. Aside from it being an ideal way to practice some embroidery techniques which I've been meaning to do, it's a more accessible and pleasant way to record your year I feel. You've created a piece of art you'll be more likely to consume than a notebook filled with lists of things you did. Sure you might not remember what exactly each thing represents in years to come but wouldn't to be fun to look at try to figure out?

I'm considering starting one myself. I've been toying with the idea of merging the tradition journalling-in-a-notebook style with journal threading by, instead of having a bunch of hoops, creating a book of sorts that I can add to over the years. Who knows. 

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*Yeah, ok, sure, I guess I'm still working on this one. Ya caught me.

**I would like to say that not everyone can be a Jim Henson. I may write more on this at a later date but in a world that often stresses that the only way to really live is to go and do absolutely ALL THE THINGS, doing small things you love with minimal fuss often gets brushed off as not worthwhile. While I do agree you need to get out of your comfort zone sometimes, and you should definitely see a little something of this amazing world, no one should feel as if they need to apologize for appreciating the little things in life so much that they find joy in living quietly most of the time. Finding joy in the small and the so-called "mundane" is a precious gift, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.