Signing in quickly, even if just to blow off the dust and get reacquainted with things around here.

Anyway…

I’ve been doing a practice called “Morning Pages” more on than off for the last two or three years. Morning pages? What are morning pages, you ask? It’s three pages of longhand ramble, written as closely to the first thing in the morning as possible. For me, “first thing in the morning” means after coffee, before grading. It’s meant to be pen-and-paper, but I’ve been using my ReMarkable (my e-ink tablet that I’ll probably write more about in days to come because it’s been a game-changer for me) a lot of mornings. What I use depends on my mood. All you really need is a pen and paper, though. No matter what the medium, it’s handwritten, not typed. Pacing is important, and the experience of handwriting is completely different than composing at the computer keyboard. I’m convinced that I think differently when I write by hand.

It’s not quite formal journaling. Some mornings produce more “useful” writing than others. Some are pure whiney ramble, some are a chronicle of circling thoughts, some are actually working through a problem. I just show up to the page, and I never know quite what I’m going to get. It’s not usually as good as a box of chocolates, but it keeps me writing and it gets me off zero, which for the last two-year patch of being creatively stuck, is saying something. Julia Cameron is the person who came up with and popularized (formalized) the idea. She’s a little further left on the Oprah to Spock continuum than I generally prefer, but she’s given the world a lot of good advice when it comes to how to get unstuck. Here’s her introduction to the idea.

So with that lengthy explanation, I had a thought last night that maybe I’ll try something new, either in addition to (or instead of some days) my Morning Pages practice. Evening pages, I’m calling it, because I’m original like that. I’m sitting down at the end side of the day to trace back and make a record of the best moments of the day. Just a paragraph. A few sentences. A snapshot. A sort of a twist on a gratitude journal, I suppose (see, not original…). After noticing last summer’s days running together into a blur, I want to prevent that from happening to another season of my life.

So, evening pages. We’ll see if it sticks. I’ve found the secret to journaling regularly is to distinguish “regularly” from “religiously.” I skip a day or two, but I always come back to it. No guilt, just moving on –a practice I learned when my high school diary had no pre-printed dates. I could skip a day or two and not have to leave a blank page, and that was a huge relief.

Oh, and I’ve said my final goodbye (no, really, this is it, I mean it this time) to my account at The Social Media Outlet Formerly Known as Twitter. Finally got sick of being a pawn for some rich dude’s social experiment (can we all just admit that it’s painfully obvious that he’s doing everything he can to end it?). The time spent scrolling and spinning wheels and wasting words wasn’t worth it any more. So, save for my seldom-used Instagram account, I’m social-media free, and that might have something to do with my productivity this morning, despite my not being in the mood to grade. And it might have something to do with my return here. Again, I’m hoping the habit sticks.