Lady's Home Journal

I think there is a magazine with a similar name. Hopefully I won't be sued over using it in a similar yet different way.

I have been journaling since I was about 11. I have so many journals strewn around my life that I don't even know how many are stuffed here and there. Why do I journal? Lots of reasons. When I was young I had dreams, fantasies and aspirations for things higher than the present situation I found myself in. I also had a gift for it. Journaling comes easy to me. I started with a "diary" given my by my mother. That got me hooked. The little lock on it was so tiny and the key equally diminuative. I would start with the familiar, "Dear Diary". As I grew up the diary thing turned on me and several people invaded my world and made me regret ever fantasizing about anything.

I got over that. I no longer write fantasy down. Folks with weird perceptions don't understand that pretend and dreaming is normal to a teenaged girl. Let it suffice to say that I learned that I never put down on paper what I don't want the ENTIRE planet to know. People can't keep secrets and invasion of privacy is the norm not the exception.

As I grew to adulthood I learned that "talking out" my problems and perceptions helped me understand others better. I came to learn that other people don't necessarily think like I do or believe like I believe. I would document things God taught me along the pathways of life. I used it for a place to create poetry and song. I used journaling for documenting actual dreams that I felt were significant. I even documented other people's dreams in picture. I also have the ability to draw, another gift from God.

Journaling has become a regular thing with me. I don't journal everyday, but when something significant in my life comes along I write it down. Friends know that a journal is the perfect gift for me. I was given a most elaborate one recently. It was made in Tuscany (Italy) and is covered with tooled leather. It has a leather thong strap that wraps and ties around it. It smells wonderful and feels so textural in my hands. I only put my most imporant thoughts in it. It just seems right.

One of my favorite things to do when I make the time is to go and find old journals and revisit them. I see a cross section of my life during a specific time. I see how I reacted to hard situations and how I rejoiced at good times. I've seen maturity as it developed in my soul. I have even seen the seeds of patience sown in the soil of my heart, watered with the moistening of endurance and weeded of the roots of anxiousness. Those seeds have come to fruition over and over and made me know that God is working a work in me. He is not finished till the curtain is closed on my life and my journals become my memoires.

I don't know what will become of my journals when I go. I'm not afraid to be transparent with others. God has shown me that folks really need to know there are people who aren't afraid of living life honestly before the world. I have nothing to hide. My past is gone and I am living for today. Tomorrow isn't mine until it becomes today. I am content with where I am and looking forward to the moments God gives me each day.

I would encourage the strong and those who want to become strong to journal. Go slowly at first. Just write down things that you are confident in. Things you personally have lived. Never write down mad feelings about others. Those will come back at you as weapons. Just a note written in experience. Write down hard things too. You may have a shell of iron built around you, but others need to know you have survived hardships. You may cover yourself with a fig leaf, but we all have things we want to hide but need to confess to someone, anyone.

I journaled this morning. I am journaling now. Blogs are electronic diaries and journals. They have become the confessional of this century. They are very cathardic and as hard as life is today, a real necessity for the masses.

I hope you have enjoyed this lady's home journaling.

Cerise

Simplifying IS NOT That Easy

I get emails, posts, Facebook updates of all sorts of scrapbook and greeting card layouts. They come to me in droves. One thing I notice is that the projects are so elaborate, time consuming and over the top I know I'll never even make one of them.

I have to face my lifestyle facts; my time is limited. Your time is probably limited too! You get up with the intentions to take the day rolling. You wake up in a great mood, you get all your chores done and then you head out on your day. Some guy starts honking at you half way between where you are and where you want to be. He just doesn't seem to quit. You stare at him wanting to think something or say something you shouldn't and you notice he's pointing down at YOUR car. He's pointing at YOUR tire. YOU have a flat. Thankfully you are just a stone's throw from the Wally World tire center. Can you make it? Yes, you make it, but your schedule is just shot to pieces. The guy tells you it will be an hour before they can even LOOK at your tire. What are you going to do? You're going to walk the store and use that hour for something productive. Wait a minute you're thinking. What happened to the elaborate card we were discussing. That's my point exactly, the lovely card designed by Ralphed Lorenzo went the way of all overly ornate decor. Time is not on our side. But, you argue. I want to make that overly elaborate card. Go get digital software and create and print. All the bells and whistles are there and you simply print it out to look fancy and fru fru.

Reality speaks so loud some times. I'd like to give reality a virtual kick in the hiney. I want to have time to sit for hours (without the neck strain and back aches associated with scrapbooking) and create. I want to make memorable albums that are dug up centuries from now and displayed proudly in the Lourve or the Smithsonian. I have come to the conclusion that the extent of my creativity will have to depend upon small snippets of time I steal from other work I am supposed to be doing. Within those snippets of time I choose projects that look lovely yes, elaborately sewn, embellished, carved, and covered with calligraphy of the Victorian ilk, well not so much.

Simplifying is more like eliminating about half of what I would like to do and then carving about half of that away. I'm left with time for the occasional nap. Yah, that's what I'd like to do. There I have all the time in the world. I can dream of making that card that causes women to gasp and men to wipe their eyes. Yes, the Lourve wants it. It never does reach it's intended recipient, but it does hang proudly in the Smithsonian for all to see. It never reaches the bowels of the museum where about 90% of all they own decays in storage. Like the Mona Lisa it inspires future generations of artists. Ok, who I kidding. I am going to cut some cardstock, maybe a little ribbon, add some heat embossing with rubber stamps and maybe add some glitter. Wait, I have to wake up first. No, I better finish my nap. I have a whole list of things that didn't get cut from my "Simply This" list.

So if you're feeling condemned for not making that unbelievable card, know this. The gal that made it has no life. She never gets out of the house. She sits at her desk, cuts, sews, embosses, die cuts, glues, tape runs, embroiders and never talks to a human being. She just sends out nasty emails full of projects that the "real" women has little chance of ever making.

I will be content to be the real woman who visits the elderly, feeds her chickens, pets her dog, makes pancakes for hubby and plays Webkinz on the computer with her grandchildren and other kids she knows and loves. I will be happy to post reality checks for you here on my blog. Those who can afford to spend $15.00 on a card will make those kinds of cards. I am budgeting myself, my time and my life. I'm worth more than that and so are you. Simplify by doing what you can in the alloted time you're given. If you made that $15.00 card would you want to give it away? I have difficulty giving any of mine away because I know what my time is worth.

Enjoy the cards you get. Most folks go to the local Haulmark store, find one that makes them happy and sign their Juan Henrique's on them. They invest another couple quarters in stamps and woosh it off in the mail. It took them probably a total of 10 minutes to cover their bases and to get that card to you.

Do what you can. That is my newest motto. I'm doing what I can. I'm praying for the gal who is stuck at her desk making Baroque inspired cards. She needs to simplify her life.