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Today I’m sharing another page from my yoga planning journal. This theme was inspired by the beauty of the season (of course), by the writings of Rainer Maria Rilke and Parker Palmer, and by my sister who has taught me interesting ways to work around mistakes.
I have been working on my Ukrainian journal a lot this month.
The project began early this year — way before the Ukraine became all the rage in the news.
Now everything is coming up Ukraine!
My people are from Zaporizhia and the project was originally intended as a way to learn about the culture and my ancestors while also learning the art making of “junk journals” from my sister. The journal inspired research, which inspired the creation of the choreography I performed last weekend, which inspired more research. I’ve maybe been a little (ok, a LOT) obsessed. I have amassed an embarrassing amount of Russian folk music and I’ve been bugging my Russian-speaking friends and my dad about interpreting the lyrics anytime they’re in the vicinity. I’ve watched hours and hours of youtube videos and documentaries (Romany Romance was awesome) and I’ve videoed the videos (so meta!). Orest Subtelny’s Ukraine: A History sits on my nightstand. Svetlana Touchkoff’s foretune telling cards are scattered like breadcrumbs from my office to my bedroom. They keep popping up unexpectedly in strange places.
So today I made a little hidey spot in the journal for super secret notes. But that’s not what I’m showing you today. Today you get to see the inside cover with a picture of my grandmother as a little girl and the front pocket stuffed with papery parts.
My Magical Make-It Month continues and today I’ve made a fantastic mess. Nobody said this would be easy or tidy.
But hey, at least I managed to get the cover picture right side up and on the front of the journal!
Last night as we were turning in, he pulled some sort of journal-making flotsam or jetsam of mine out from deep beneath the covers and asked, “What is this?!”
Mwahahah! I wonder what he’ll find in bed tonight…
(I suppose there is a good reason Pressfield entitled his awesome book The War of Art. Think about it.)
Only three days in and my magical make-it month is starting to stress me out. I wish I was kidding.
Inspired by old family photographs that I confiscated from my dad and by the journals my sister makes, I started creating a Ukrainian-themed journal earlier this year.
Last night I worked on the inside cover (i.e., the gluey mess I alluded to in my last post) and my sister bound it for me. Today I set to work on the front cover. I decided to use the wedding photograph of my great-great grandparents…and…voila!
…when I finished cutting and inking and gluing and tweaking, I went to show it off, so very proud of myself….and that’s when I realized I had put it all on the back cover…
…upside down.
To cut myself some slack, I am going to blame it on the fact that I’m running a fever and there are 4 medications running through my system today. Back to the drawing board tomorrow.
If you’d like to see an fabulous example of a “junk journal” check out my sister’s page: RecycledbySkattur
My electronic archives have been neglected this year as I took a turn back to the old ways, to relish the dying art of handwriting and its ancient tools, and to savor the privacy, tangibility, focus and flow that these tools afford.
For some reason, this seems like a good time to share a gratuitous picture of a turtle I met this year. Or maybe she’s not so gratuitous. Maybe she was a little spirit companion meant to remind me the value of slowing down, grounding, and seeking solitude.
But I didn’t come here today to share turtle pictures. I wanted to show you one of my most prized possessions — a garden journal my sister made for me.
She calls it a “junk journal,” though I don’t think that’s a fitting description. Every single page is embellished with awesomeness.
There are all sorts of nooks and folds in which to tuck notes, thoughts, dreams, and ideas. And she stocked it with seeds, charms, a vial of dandelion fluff upon which to make wishes, and all sorts of magic.
And these pictures do not even begin to do it justice.
With this journal I am a garden wizard! Next year, I should be able to grow a beanstalk to climb to find the goose who lays golden eggs.
It makes me happy.
The video below is her doing a complete flip-through of the journal in case you’re interested:
And if you want to see the other journals she’s created (e.g., Murder on the Orient Express), here’s a link to her channel:
Recycled by Skattur
My Little Spacebook 