What characteristics are you bringing to your experiences this year?

Last week, I wrote about the 7 characteristics I’m bringing to my experiences this year. They are: courage, openness, curiosity, effort, focus, honesty, and confidence.

I thought you might like to join me, so I created a new free printable prompt. This one feels kind of special. Not only do I adore this prompt, but I’ve also included one of my experiments in watercolour as a background. It took me a while to figure out how to scan the original and use it in Illustrator, but I love that I can share it with you like this.

You can download my new page by clicking here or by clicking on the image above.

And if you haven’t already replied to last week’s prompt (or even if you have!), what characteristics are you bringing to your experiences this year?

 

What did you figure out today?

I’ve been thinking about new ways to play with colour and shapes in my journal pages — both my personal pages and my printables. Today, I think I figured out the beginnings of a new journal project — one that will involve a little paint, a scanner and lots of prompts. I love new projects!

What did you figure out today?

 

The 7 characteristics I'm bringing to my experiences this year

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Last week, Joy the Baker wrote about the 6 ingredients she’s baking with this year and her post has been on my mind ever since.

She wrote:

With the new year coming into focus I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to play with in my kitchen, what I want my baking to taste like, and how I want to stretch myself and my ingredient list.

It got me thinking about applying this approach to my own life. What ideas do I want to play with this year? What do I want my experiences to be like? How do I want to stretch myself?

I wrote my answers in my journal, above. Thank you, Joy, for the inspiration!

How about you? What characteristics are you bringing to your experiences this year?

 

What did you wish today?

I tend to wish for the same two things every day — time and courage — and today is no exception. Daily life is often a little too fast and a little too scary for my liking, but it helps to reflect on the things I can do to make the most of the time I do have and to face the stuff that scares me — like setting priorities and taking big projects and decisions one tiny step at a time.

What did you wish today?

 

Who or what (or where?) did you visit today?

My only visit today was to one of our local parks with the puppy at lunchtime. To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to it. The park, while within walking distance, is part of our regular route. I’ve been there a thousand times and felt sure I’d be hard pressed to journal anything interesting about it.

So I set myself a challenge — to find one beautiful thing while we were there. It started raining along the way and the park was dull and muddy. I worried I wouldn’t find anything beautiful.

Then I looked up. The sky, while mostly grey, showed the slightest hint of purple and the trees around me, while bare and spindly, took on another quality when viewed from directly below. The shapes made by their overlapping branches reminded me of cracks in the ice on a pond or a system of rivers and their tributaries photographed from far above. It was mesmerizing. I snapped a quick photo from beneath the trees on my phone before returning home — a little soggier than before, but also kind of ridiculously happy.

I printed the photo on some copy paper, cropped off a little snippet and added it to my journal entry for today.

Who or what or where did you visit today?

 

What did you listen to today?

It has been such fun journaling the first seven days of January in my journal calendar. My gel pens are getting lots of exercise.

Today’s prompt is - listened to.

On my list: freezing rain dancing on our front window, an interview with Sandra Oh on CBC radio, a lovely cover of Elvis’s “Don’t Be Cruel” by Billy Swan (also on CBC radio), and school day recaps from my girls.

What did you listen to today?