Words and Bullets

As a small child, when Big Brother got upset with me, he'd clench his fists, screw up his face, and in the fiercest voice a five-year-old can muster would threaten, "Oooooh, I'm going to hit you and kick you and push you down the steps!"

So, with that image in mind, did you all kick Father Time down the steps last night? There was a headline during a news show I saw this morning labeled 'Hindsight is 2020'. And, while that saying has a completely different meaning, I took pause. Does it? We've learned so many things from the past year we can take into the rest of our lives. This is the time we make plans, setting goals for the new year. Where we look back and take stock of where we are physically, mentally, spiritually. We resolve to do better; eat better; live better.

Personally, I don't make resolutions. I often found dwindling oomph to make them happen before we turned the calendar to February. Do I want to do better? Of course, and this year I was helped by Google and Youtube. They are so good at suggesting things I might be interested in watching. Recently, one of those suggestions was 'bullet journaling'. I had heard of it, but knew nothing about it. I bit the bullet (pun intended!). I watched someone set up a 2021 bullet journal for someone else. She talked about tracking, setting goals (pushing and pulling - all I could think of was that animal from Dr. Doolittle - the original - called the Push-me-pull-me), and basically how to use these little journals full of dots. Then, I watched another. This person painted pictures and inserted them inside the journal. Someone else actually drew and painted inside the journal. Another journalist included her plan book (she's a teacher in New Zealand). Big Brother said they would have loved those books when he and his siblings were children - it would have made playing that game where you make squares and claiming it by inserting your initial much easier to play, rather than having to make a page full of dots on their own! But, no matter how it was or wasn't decorated, the bullet journalists all agreed on one thing: you build your journal on your Word for the Year

 All of this information got me thinking (not the game part). I talked with DiDi about it - she said she'd always been interested in bullet journaling. So, I bought a couple at Michael's (inexpensive, but would give us plenty of paper with which to practice), and we got together one day over Christmas break to work on them. Her word for the year is 'Grace', and she started using her new marker set to create pretty flowers on some of her pages. She's really good at this!

I had already made a list of pages to make. I had also already decided to make it a book chronicling my creative journey - to last for years, I hope! There is the title page, a page for 2021, a page to track my yearly spending on art supplies (in an effort to save money!), and a page to track books I'm reading. Then I got to January, then the month in review where I can track what I've worked on each day - color coded, of course! The plan there is to make that page colorful with working habits. No more excuses that I'm too tired from working all day! The next several pages are for daily reflections on what I've worked on that day; ideas I'd like to try; what didn't work.

The only thing I hadn't come up with was a word for the year. It seems daunting to think of one word that would impact an entire year. I mean, what word wants all of that responsibility placed upon its shoulders? What does this year hold for me? A move to a new house which entails packing everything and possibly moving twice; are we remote teaching or full-in with no possibility of  adequate social distancing - things that are going to take up a lot of my energies. Truthfully, the only word I could come up with was SURVIVAL, but felt that was a little defeatist. Then, it came to me: why one word? Why not a word a month?

While surviving and dodging bullets (see what I did there?!) might be my underlying theme, my word for January is CREATE, with a quote from Kurt Vonnegut: "To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it".  I wrote "So do it" at the bottom of each January page, a daily reminder to get cracking on the things that make me who I am, so I'm not lost in that vast ocean of humanity. My biggest challenge is going to be making it a daily habit to not only check out that creative journey planner, but to actually set foot in that studio space.

But, while I'm tracking and reflecting that journey, I still have another planner that I use for work and the rest of my life. It's important to me to keep those things separate from my creative life. I can close one book and open up another without distractions from that other world. I often don't take my phone with me while I'm creating for that very same reason. I might listen to music, but that's just background where my thoughts can float.

If choosing one word for the year is daunting to you as well, what will you strive for in January? Have you ever tried keeping a bullet journal, or any journal? How long did you use it? Who do you have to help you keep your goals? You can always count on me here at the Stress Pool, so bring your journal - or not - and let's help each other along the road to a happier year! In the meantime, I'll be treading water in the deep end. See you again soon!