• poetry and poem-making
• stories and story-telling
• why writing matters

I might update this site from time to time with news on classes but the meatier material on the benefits of journal writing can be found at:

Write for Our Lives

If you’re interested in these topics please do join me there.

I’m stretching the boundaries of journaling a bit here… or am I?

This is a form of photo-journal or audio-journal capturing part of a journey to London for a training course in digital storytelling.

As you’ll see it also captures the more universal feelings of uncertainty and fear that emerge when we venture into the unknown…

In the interests of creativity and experimentation I wanted to share my first digital story here, created in a bit of a rush on the afternoon of the training.

It’s not edited as much as it would have beenwith more time, and goes on a little bit longer at the start than I’d like… but I get into my stride as it goes on (and I get closer to the tea stand )

You can watch / listen to the slideshow here:

Aldgate East: Journey to the Unknown from Joanna Young on Vimeo.

The (stream of consciousness) transcript runs like this:

Out of the underground. Aldgate East.

I know I’m in kind of the right place because that was roughly the address I got, but which way to go now?

I remember, too late, how many exits there are from underground stations, and I remember, too late, that I don’t know my way around here, I don’t know where the interesting things are in relation to each other, so I’m left wondering, which exit, which way to go, 12 hours from home, a long way from home, and I’m suddenly wondering am I in the right place at all?

Is this the right exit?  I don’t know.  I’ll just have to take it. Pick an option. Go for it. You can work it out when you get there.

TRAFFIC NOISE.

Out, up on street level, out, away from the underground, traffic assails my senses.  It’s busy, loud, unfamiliar, and yes, I want to go home. But, come this far, 12 hour journey, so far, can’t stop now, pick an exit, walk, get up on to street level, get your bearings, look for signs, will these signs help?

well, they might, but I don’t know what they’re pointing to, could that man on the horse help?  Maybe, but he’s a long way up in the sky.

Look! There’s a sign, a big green sign, simple, clear, straightforward, the kind of sign that I like, but what’s it pointing to? Hmm. Stratford.  I think that’s east.Do I want to go east?  I can’t remember.

It’s not unknown for me to come out of an underground or come out of a shop or a doorway and go in totally the opposite direction and walk for miles before I realise that I’ve done that and I don’t want to do that today, I haven’t really got time, so I’d better stop, check, am I supposed to be going east?

I look at the map. It’s a bit scrawled, it’s a bit scrunched, it’s just a print out from google, but yes, I’m sure I’m supposed to be going east, north, south, east, west, I’m tired, I haven’t had all that much sleep, can’t work out which direction I’m supposed to be going in but I’m pretty sure I’m heading east from Aldgate East,

I stop, get my bearings, look over the road, ha! Alder Street, that’s it, not Alder Street, Adler Street, Adler Street, that’s it, that’s what I’m looking for, I cross the road, I’m sure I’m nearly there, now here’s the building,

I think this is the building, I seem to remember the address but I can’t see a sign for Sound Delivery, I’ll try anyway, see what happens, sooo, it’s not Sound Delivery but everyone I ask seems to say ‘yes, this is where you’re supposed to be’, try the 3rd floor,

I get to the third floor and still there’s no sign of Sound Delivery but – the signs are kind of happy, and the people are kind of happy and, I don’t know if I’m in the right place, yet, but I’ve come anyway and it’s worth exploring, this might be the right exit and if it isn’t – doesn’t really matter, because, guess what?  there’s

tea, and wherever there’s tea, that’s always a good place to be.

Thanks to Sound Delivery for taking me this far in a day!

Although we tend to think of journal writing as a daily practice for most of us it isn’t any more.

And although we can use a journal to capture moments of a day (and indeed those are some of my favourite sorts of writing) we can also explore ways to reflect and learn week by week (like this photo journal idea for each week of the year), or look back at the month just gone by.

That’s one of the Journal to the Self practices I really enjoy – in 5 or 10 minutes just taking the time to reflect on the shape and feel of the last month, not so much in terms of ‘this happened and that  happened’ but how it felt.

What it meant.  Where it sat, maybe, in the part of the journey we’re on right now.

It’s simple, quick and valuable… and it helps to give me a different perspective on time.

Sometimes we need just to let ourselves play, tear, gather, stick, gathering images and creating meaning-without-meaning when we’re still in the state of not-knowing.

Allowing it to be enough to know, to feel, to see, that there are magical entrances and doorways to the story, that the work is full of hearts and the importance of heart work, that colourful birds will bless the pages of what you do, that cages will be opened, and the key found that sets the stories free.

~~~

Sometimes our journals need to capture images, not words.

Or images, then words, letting the words play from the images and the meaning they might make.

~~~

The slide show is based on some photos from a collage on the question of the ‘the work I do next’, supported by @amypalko (and company )

It’s what can happen if you emerge too soon. Standing frozen in the sunlight. Scared of your own shadow.

~~~

A journal entry from Feb 2, 2007.  Making me wonder if maybe I emerged too soon

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle ~ Einstein

Journaling can help us to slow down, pay attention, capture the moments, capture the detail of the moments that start to reveal the miracles.

It’s one of the reasons I journal.  And one of the reasons I take photographs.

Some blogging reminders about noticing beauty in the everyday I received from the universe in the last 24 hours:

Noticing Beauty in the OrdinaryMoments (at The Calm Space)

In the complication of life’s activities and choices we make, it’s refreshing to listen to an album that feels like a clean slate, so that I can openly look and appreciate the seemingly ordinary moments in life and the beauty that is in front of me at every moment, if only I dare take a moment to look.

This Effortless Brilliance (at Shades of Crimson)

Contemplated having a coffee at Tim Horton’s on the way home, but chose to leave the noise of the traffic on West Broadway. I’d make myself a coffee at home and enjoy it in the privacy of my clean and quiet apartment.

Headed to a side street. Good choice; there was a rainbow in the northern sky towards the mountains. I would have missed it otherwise. It was brilliant. Hung in the sky effortlessly. Living colour. Going nowhere in particular.

I’m going to remember to slow down and pay attention to the detail this week, both going nowhere in particular, and living colour

One of the things I love about the workshop materials is the invitation to journal in so many different ways, each one offering a different way in for the creative self / unconscious mind.  The prompts include letters of the alphabet to generate an ‘alpha poem’ – either the whole alphabet, or the letters of a particular phrase.  Here’s one I wrote about Journal to the Self:

Journeys through

Our shared, collective

Understanding.

Relaxing,

Naming,

Allowing,

Letting go.

Trusting in

Our

Truth telling

Heart feeling

Essence finding

Story sharing.

Essentially:

Letting go and letting

Flow

… as a first step towards them becoming real.

Here’s part of what emerged from my journal over the Christmas break – turning itself into part of my wish for the new year.

It is time: to play, to smile, to be blissful, to work with love, in light and delight, to take off that overcoat and stand up tall, ready for more, hungry for more, wanting more, wanting to sing, to dance, to chant, to sing gorgeous poems that make people weep with sorrow and laugh with delight, poems with bounce and energy, oh it is time for the full, round energy of the spring to awaken within me, I am done with transitions, with the dead wood of winter, with limits, with liminality, with fears and limiting beliefs, I am ready to dance, I am ready for the grown up gorgeous spring time playtime of my life.

~~~

It will be interesting to see where these word wishes take me in 2010!

What word patterns and dreams emerged from your journal writing over the holiday?  What word wishes will you be taking with you into the new year?

It’s cold, it’s dark.  People are busy.  People are tired.

We have a natural human need to hunker down, get warm, get quiet, keep safe.

It’s a perfect time to journal.

To forget writing for others, to attract clients, to create an impression, to make a mark, to make people think, to wake people up, to look good, to entertain, to truth tell…

No.

Just a place to write, quietly, without audience, without applause, without judgements, without critics.

It’s the perfect time to journal.

To write, just for you.

To let your thoughts untangle and your ideas unfurl.  To let your words flow and poems emerge.

To write, just for you.

What a gift.

No, it’s about getting rid of the baggage that says there’s a “proper” way to write a journal.

I did an exercise recently looking at the rules or expectations we associate with journal writing.  I realised that I have three unhelpful limiting beliefs that run something like this:

1. I can’t commit to keeping a journal every day.  Therefore I’m not a proper journal writer.

2. I prefer typing to handwriting.  I get into a mess when I’m using pen and ink (unlike those graceful women who can craft beautifully hand written, legible pieces.)  Therefore I’m not a proper journal writer.

3. I can’t stick to one medium.  I jump between different kinds of software, notebooks, scraps of paper.  I jump about and it’s scattered.  A journal should be kept within the pages of a … well a journal.  Therefore I’m not a proper journal writer.

Grrr.

Who made these rules? No-one!

Do I believe them? No!

Do I think they’re helpful? Definitely not!

Banished shall they be.

I’ll do it my way, proper or not.

I’ll write improperly if I have to

There’s only one rule I’m going to stick to: to get to the truth, to the heart, to the essence, as quickly as I can.

How about you: do you carry around unhelpful rules or expectations about how journaling ‘should’ be done?  What happens when you let go of them and write the improper way instead?