It is the fifth day of the new year, and if you are like me you may have made a few resolutions. This year my resolutions are bit more day-to-day specific. One of these resolutions deals with journaling.
I received two journals around Christmas (one given to me and one I bought for myself). Perhaps journals are a popular Christmas/New Year’s gift. Simply perusing the aisles of Barnes and Noble’s would lead me to believe that journals are a VERY popular item around this time of year.
When I bought my journal I must have spent 25 (let’s be honest 40) minutes looking at a wall of blank “DIY books.” For all intensive purposes, diaries and journals are blank books waiting for you to fill them. As I was trying to choose which journal to purchase, I felt a pressure to purchase something that I presently liked, as well as keeping in mind future me. Will I like this cover, this binding, and its lined pages in 3 years? (Looking at my past success of journaling…it takes 3 years for me to fill one of these suckers!)
Then fast forward a few weeks to Christmas, and I receive another journal. This one is a different kind of beast. It’s a ‘journal for creatives.’ Each day presents a prompt to draw, doodle, imagine…whatever. But it’s for 4 years. Daily journaling for 4 years?! Immediately, I felt a certain pressure from this gift.
Am I up to it?
This gift was given in love, don’t I want to honor the giver by using it?
A journal for everyday for 4 years? Is this a gift or a sentence?
This is where one of my resolutions comes in.
I have a resolution for journaling. (I should mention that this blog is part of that resolution.)
I resolve to try my best.
I resolve to be honest about the days I journal and the days I don’t. (No going backsies) So what if some days are blank? Next year when I visit that page I may remember why it was blank that day (or blank for several days around it).
I resolve to take one day at a time.
Breathe in. Breathe out. I can try journaling. I can try blogging and writing and creative stuff.
Let’s be honest, I may revisit this post some months from now and laugh about my attempts.
But let’s try. One day at a time.
While writing this blog I found a New York Times article from last year about making resolutions and keeping them. Yes, it’s from 2018… but really we face these resolutions every year around this time, and every year struggle a bit. So in a way, these articles are timeless.
Are you resolving to do something this year?
Has someone given you a gift that you don’t know if you can handle?
Blessings on the resolutions.
