THE JOURNAL THAT WAS MEANT TO BE

This is the journal that was meant to be...the one that started writing itself. Perhaps, when I explain how that came about, you'll understand why I had to go back to make these additions to its cover.

You see, I've always kept agendas -- to keep track of where I need to be and when -- but my art journals were something else altogether. Last December, when the holidays were coming to an end, I still hadn't purchased my 2020 agenda. So, when I spotted this "Mindfulness Journal" on the magazine rack at Costco I just grabbed it, even though I'm not really into yoga and meditation stuff. I just needed a place to jot down the appointments I'd already made for the coming year.

A few weeks later I was doing my annual purge in the bedroodio, trying to make room on the shelves for the artsy Christmas gifts I'd received and space on the art table to actually do some work, when I came across a book I had been soooo excited to purchase, then somehow forgot all about. It was Gina Rossi Armfield's No Excuses Art Journaling book. It shows you how to use a desk diary or agenda as the basis for an art journal, to capture the moments in your days, and was just what I needed to get me out of my creative rut. How's that for synchronicity?

I started out dutifully following her weekly and monthly instructions, adding her insert pages and envelopes with colorful washi tape, and it actually did manage to get me in the groove. Before long, however, I no longer needed the prompts, and had segued into just doing my own thing, and loving it. Then...along came Covid-19!  

On the inside cover page there was a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke that I didn't give much thought to when I first saw it. It said "And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been." How prophetic was that? Later, I made my own addition to the page, asking "You mean things like COVID - 19?" Still later, I started adding words and phrases like Social Distancing, Flatten the Curve, and Self-Quarantine. Before long the "Things That Have Never Been" were coming at us from every direction, from Antifa to Zoom, and the page was almost full!

So THAT, my friends, is how I ended up with a Mindfully Synchronistic Pandemic Art Journal, and the year isn't over yet. Let's hope I don't have to insert a whole 'nother page of "things that have never been"!