Memories of Mom

I've noticed that one thing keeping a journal has done, lately, is make me feel close to my mother...it seems appropriate to share that, on Mother's Day.

She's been gone since I was 18; life's been full in the interim, and I'd not thought about some of these things for a glacial age.  But sitting in my little shed/studio lately, sketching the birds and the spring flowers, has made me feel so close to her!  She loved all of that, and yes, even painted in watercolor a bit...

I realized when I did this journal page how much it reminded me of some of her work, as well as the things she loved in nature; I tried to find the one that had dogwood in it to post (I still have a few of her paintings tucked away in a drawer) but couldn't turn it up.  My own, with this year's astoundingly lush dogwood and a tiny chipping sparrow, will have to do...

Our dear friend and journal correspondent Laura Frankstone wrote in this post about her journal taking her in a different direction...they'll DO that, if we don't impose rigid rules or expectations on them, and that's one of their greatest values.  We learn, we remember, we discover things about our lives and ourselves...

Laura recently recommended a book called The New Diary by Tristine Rainer (with a forward and many journal-keeping ideas from Anais Nin).  The book was originally written in the 1970s, but it is FULL of journaling concepts from many sources to explore...as Rainer says, there is no right way to journal, no right or wrong--she simply offers dozens of possibilities to find your own way.  Many of the suggestions I had done before--as I've said, I'm been journaling for at least 40 years!  But the reminder and the new slant and the hundreds of fresh ideas is energizing.

Some journal keepers do only text, some only art, and some combine the two...something about the dam bursting has made me need a LOT more words again, and lovely smooth paper to write on...so I tipped in some writing paper to give me more room.  A small tab turned up on one edge let me paste new papers into my existing book and I've been exploring them with abandon!

That's when I realized how close I felt to my mother these days...

Happy Mother's Day, mom, and to all the mothers out there...