In 2007 and 2008 I lived in Stockholm, Sweden and I blogged every day.
About random observations, what I ate, thoughts I wanted answers on or at least have others ponder with me. I took pictures and shared them. Sometimes my blogs were funny, other times they were nostalgic. Mostly they were about the mundane.
Because that’s our life. The every day habits. The mundane. The re-occuring. It’s not always about celebrations and special events and pretty settings and amazing things. And here’s the thing. We do actually remember the amazing events in our life, but we don’t remember random book quotes or the name of a pretty flower or a recipe we saw while browsing Tiktok. We don’t recall the sweet things our children say to us, or the jokes we found hilarious. The concert ticket or pretty card or little offcut of ribbon you save as a memory – without context or somewhere to put it, it’ll end up in the bin before long.
That’s where journals come in.
They don’t need to be amazing. They don’t need to be handmade, or expensive or pretty. My very first junk journal was an A5 Typo notebook and most days I collaged bits of my life, until the spine of that notebook burst open and the book fell to pieces. Perfection.
Don’t let the fear of doing it the right way or the way that social media portrays journaling to be done stand in your way. Journal your way! Capture your life and your memories. Especially the mundane.
A line a day is journaling.
A pretty collage of stickers and papers with some stamping and a sentence is journaling.
A food log is journaling.
A book with quotes is journaling.
A meal planner is journaling.
A budget tracker is journaling.
A to-do list is journaling, but at least add some doodles!
And, on some days, give yourself the grace to understand and accept that staring at a blank page is journaling too.