Little details

Collecting them up

I’ve collected words, quotes, ideas to explore over the years. They have, for the most part, sat idly in a pile that inevitably gets moved from one place to another. This summer of indoors has encouraged me to sort and clean, with these piles becoming the target of my attention of late. I take some time each evening if I can, to sit at my desk (which I really love doing by the way), look out across the garden, get distracted by the garden and then attempt to tidy up these words into something cohesive. My many piles of words are slowly turning into a resource to create from and return to when I need some guidance. I want to sink into my writing more this year and hope when my muggle work load lightens in the coming months I can do so. In the meant time I shall nibble at my mystery piles of words.

As I pull the many tags marking pages and quotes at the time of reading I carefully write words (best handwriting please) into one of my many new notebooks. A friend, knowing my habit of hand writing sent me a reel from Instagram that spoke of how

‘handwriting is scientifically shown to improve memory and creativity. It’s encouraging reflection and a sense of calm that’s hard to find on a screen”

source: @piajournals

When I was calmly and with reflection, write out my quotes I came across this little gem from “Thinking about Memoir”. I do love how words I am drawn to feel relatable across my creative work. They apply to my garden, my photography and in some cases just life in general. The author writes,

“Keep track of what you notice. What you look at is part of who you are. Keep an eye on yourself. See what you notice takes you”

While muggle work is going to take my focus for a bit and I am trying to find ways to keep myself balanced, you know, to not get engulfed by it all. These words about what I notice help. Noticing what catches your eye helps you stay connected to who you are. Each day before sleep I’ve been recording things I have noticed (in another notebook). This daily ritual was inspired by a recent workshop that I did lead by Alice Vincent. She talked of how something you can see or a detail from during your day can be the starting point for much creativity. As I don’t have space for a lot of creatively, apart from the odd walk around the garden, I have been collecting these little stories from my day that may or may not turn into future projects. I’ve find it such a beautiful thing to do before sleep. Maybe it encourages dreams of joyful things. Maybe it doesn’t. What it does do is help me see a bit more beauty in the world, to counteract others things, which I think we can all use at the moment. It all reminds me to stay connected to who I am no matter how loud other things around me get.