“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.“

~Maya Angelou

My daughter has said this quote to me many times over the years, and right now I’m taking it to heart.

In a world full of “Influencers”, I want to follow the “Encouragers”! The people that gently nudge you to follow your heart out of a genuinely caring heart.

I recently revisited someone who I have been following for less than a year, you may know her The Unexpected Gypsy, she’s pretty huge on YouTube. Well, I watched her latest video the other day, and it helped me look at journaling in a new way. Not just art journaling, but journaling in general. She has to be one of the most caring people I’ve ever come across on social media. She has a great style of art journaling, but more importantly, she just wants to share her love of art and encourage you to nurture your creativity in whatever way that brings you joy.

“Audio Journaling”

I have had a habit over the years of talking into the “record” app on my phone when I’m driving by myself, something I used to do a lot when I was commuting from house to house. Back then it was ideas for my shoppe or social media, but it morphed into just getting thoughts out of my head.

Wendy (the unexpected gypsy) shared that she considers her thoughts a kind of journaling. What! Now that’s thinking outside the box! To me that means all those ramblings into my phone could be considered journaling. So, instead of erasing them (which I do almost immediately) I listened. (you can’t complain that nobody listens to you if you’re not willing to listen to your self! Lol!)

My biggest take-away is that journaling is what you make it, call it, or how you use it…it’s up to you!

Getting back to my original point via Maya’s quote, I find that my pages tend to remind me of how I felt at the time I created them. I love looking through my journals and remembering that I took some time to just be me.

“Currently Me”

An eclectic mix of papers, colorful paint, a hose image that reminds me of how much time we spend watering our lawn, the rescued bits from a journal that I repurposed, the masked chicken…not sure about the meaning there. Anyway, a little like my “stream of consciousness” audio notes, layered, semi organized, and in the end, grateful.

As always,

Thank your stopping by,

Hope this blog post made sense,

~Patty