Half A Year of Mindful Journaling
Reflection on a Workshop
To preface: I do other things to keep track of whatever whenever without relying on Meta platforms: email newsletters, RSS feeds, or a browser bookmark to just visit the damn site for updates (if I remember to). And you can't beat Just Going to Places to see their event calendars in person.
Libraries are one of the few spaces you can just hang out at for free. I make sure to go there when I have time to kill or need a change of scenery– and I always seem to come home with a lot of pamphlets, paper bookmarks, more books, and their program schedule for the month.
At the beginning of this year, I began going to a meetup hosted at this particular library. I've shared what I wrote that day, but not my first impressions.
Albi
Due to its title I assumed it was going to be a one-off presentation. They'll be trivia, advice, and writing exercises to carry with you into the new year. But to my delight, it was monthly with something new every time.
It has been a great group, too, where I can take off the Worksona and even declare my gender-neutral pronouns. Though I'm a late arrival to the program I've become a familiar face.
I'm a typer; in my Journaling 101 outline I have a segment dedicated to keeping a digital one (and the natural pivot to blogging). So having a set time for pen-to-paper grounds me. I do carry a notebook with me just about everywhere, but I don't open up to it to actually do longform writing that often these days.
As I said during this month's round of introductions, these monthly meetups have become something to look forward to, part of the routine. Very similar to the body-doubling/parallel play thing that I like so well: people in a room, just writing, and then sharing what they've done. I've had to skip a few here and there, but there's a reserved spot on the calendar for it.
