TSS: April 26, 2015

I am slightly embarrassed at my lack of blogging these past few weeks, but I do have an explanation.

I led a group of 18 students and 20 adults on a two week tour of London, Paris, Florence, Rome, Pompeii, Capri, and Venice from March 15-28.  Twenty-four hours after my return, I caught some sort of respiratory bug that lasted far too long and left me with a nagging cough and little energy.

And then of course there was the inevitable let down after the anticipation and then realization of a major life event.  But rather than mope and have a pity party, I decided to journal instead.  In fact, I set aside the month of April to focus on writing - not a specific project, but rather write whatever came to mind, a stream of consciousness if you will.

To date, I have written just shy of 85,000 words!  While I did not harbor any expectations from this endeavor, in the end, I believe I learned more about myself, my relationship with God, and my purpose for this phase of life.  Blogging is definitely a part of my future.

I thought I might ease back into the routine with a Sunday Salon summary of the four books I read over the past few weeks.

Fiction:

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, was a clever story ideally suited to this bibliophile who dreams of owning a bookstore on a remote island.  It took me a while to relate to the protagonist, a rather crotchety widower who drinks too much and seems to care little for others.  But it didn't take long for me to witness his compassionate side.  There is a little bit of everything in this short novel:  mystery, romance, and a touch of sadness.  While I found the pacing a bit rushed in some places, I really enjoyed how the author developed the characters and pulled together all loose ends by the final scene.


Scrapbooking:
One result of this month's journaling is the realization (validation) that scrapbooking is a large part of my life.  I am passionate about the idea of Milestone Memoirs:  the marriage of photographs with personal essays to present a complete life story. In fact, I am developing a personal challenge for the month of May that I will share later.

To that end, I checked out a couple of books from the local library that address incorporating ALL of life in our scrapbooks, not just special occasions.  One book, Scrapbooking Your Faith (by Courtney Walsh) was a good reminder to document our values and beliefs as a legacy for future generations.  I have recently dabbled with Bible Journaling (#inspiredfaith on instagram), a method that incorporates artistic expression with reading scripture, and this book seemed to reiterate the same concept.

Another book I thoroughly enjoyed was The Scrapbooking Journey by Cory Richardson-Lauve.  While she delves more into artistic expression and offers a variety of page layout ideas, I was most interested in the themes she develops for her pages.  The chapter titles say it all:  Resonance - Equilibrium - Movement - Awareness - Expression - Awakening - Celebration - Connection.  I will definitely use some of her ideas in my future scrapbooking endeavors.

Non-Fiction:

I began my April journaling experiment by re-reading (for the third time) Brene Brown's The Gifts of Imperfection.  While I already reviewed the book here, I am considering doing an in-depth series of posts at a later date.  This book completely resonates with me.

In this re-read, however, I heeded her advice and picked up the book, Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul (by Dr. Stuart L Brown).  The book is a bit too entrenched in scientific data for me to completely understand, but I did skim most chapters and definitely took the message to heart:  Play is ESSENTIAL to our daily lives - not optional.

In the 7th chapter of Brene Brown's book, she advises that we learn to cultivate Play and let go of the erroneous equation that Productivity = Self-Worth.  In other words, stop focusing on the end product and instead concentrate on the process.

Since reading these two books, I am learning to play - to have fun - to enjoy the process and let God worry about outcome.  Better late than never... right?