Life As We Know It

the gratitude journal

 

 

When I decided on "gratitude" as my word of the year, I realised I also needed a gratitude journal. But none of of the journals I found in the shops or online felt quite right. I wanted one that had enough pages for the whole year, and that I could easily add bits to without it falling apart on me. So I decided to make my own.

The journal measures 13 x 18 cm. To make the cover, I painted a large sheet of watercolour paper using water soluble crayons, then layered with stamps and splats until I was happy with the look of it. I didn't want it to be too grungy or overpowering. I cut out two pieces to the size I wanted, hole-punched them, rounded the corners, added lettering and a band of lace tape and called it done.

 

 

For the inside, I chose mostly plain, lightweight papers in a range of colours so I can journal, stamp, doodle and embellish to my heart's content. I rounded the corners and hole-punched the pages too. And I made sure to get large (32 mm) binding rings so it can comfortably grow a little.

I love it! It works really well for me so far. And I love actively looking out for things I'm grateful for each day and writing them down. Long may it continue!

2012 word: Gratitude

 

 

Have you chosen your word for the year ahead yet (if you use one)?

I have. I chose "gratitude".

 

Alan suggested "fun", saying I needed some after this year and that Kirby will be the perfect age for me to have some, but I think "gratitude" is better.

Because I think gratitude is the key to contentment.

And if you're content, not chasing bigger and better all the time, you are more likely to live in the moment and have fun anyway.

 

Yes, I know that is an incredibly simplistic way of looking at life.  But during all my self-work this year, I kept coming back to gratitude. No matter what came up, seeing the bigger picture and being grateful for what I have was usually the answer.

But as much as it pains me to say it, gratitude is not my default position.

I want to change that.

I want to learn to look at the world with grateful eyes.

So that's my word for the year and I'm sticking to it.

 

To help me along I will be keeping a daily gratitude journal. I have been busy making one over the last few weeks and will show it to you next week. I'm just waiting for some large binding rings to finish it off.

 

2011 word: develop {a look back}

 

 

One of the cool things about picking a word for the year is how you instinctively know which word will be good for you in the coming year. My word for 2011, develop, turned out to be fantastic. Not necessarily in the way I thought when I picked it, but in so many other ways.

When I picked develop, I felt a little scattered and naively thought it would be mostly about honing in and improving some physical skills, like arts and crafts. Instead it turned into a year of heavy, murky, and totally necessary, self work. The other stuff hardly got a look in. But I'm so pleased with what happened. I couldn't have asked for a better year to deal with the heavy stuff. I have come out of it in a much better place. And it easily led me onto my word for 2012, but I'll tell you about that tomorrow.

How did you get on with your word for the year (if you had one)? Any surprises your end?