New and Old Pages

I was gifted a lovely new notebook for Christmas. It is beautiful and pristine and so exquisite I'm quite petrified of using it.

But on the plus side, the new notebook has made me feel that it's ok to finally start using another beautiful notebook - the larger one with the carnelian stone was also a Christmas gift from a mere four years ago!

Actually, four years ago, I received both of these lovely notebooks.

And I'm proud to say I did use the littler one on the left straight away. It took me two years to fill up, but I used it with words I'm proud of.

(One of the things that always happens with me and lovely new notebooks is that, despite my best intentions, the notebook invariably degenerates into a half-hearted and splotchy repository of half-baked ideas that are usually, earnestly over-plotted. The idea usually never goes anywhere, and I kill the notebook's mojo.)

But that didn't happen with this notebook. I filled it with, of all things, my tweets. Some of my tweets that I'm proudest of are in here. It sounds odd - to be writing tweets into a notebook. But there you have it. My favourite tweety compositions are in there: micro-fictions, mood pieces, snippets of magical unrealities. These are pieces I would have to travel a long way down my Twitter timeline to ever find again, assuming I could remember they existed. But in this notebook, I have them at my fingertips, and they bring a world of memories, moods and moments with them.

I filled up the littler notebook shortly before my Little One arrived and it's been sitting on top of its companion notebook ever since, waiting to hand over the baton. And now, with the arrival of the new notebook, I have no more excuses.

So I thought I would start the new notebook with some new year resolutions, seeing as it's 2020 and a new year, new decade, new pages and all that.

Then I realised I'd done the same thing in the littler notebook, four years ago. Here are my resolutions from four years ago:

• self-publish something
• write one piece per week on my blog
• read at least one classic this year
• do yoga
• wear less black
• do something good with my photos

And you know what? These are still all things on my to-do and aspire-to-do list! I laughed when I saw the list sitting there, and yes, the laughter may have had a slightly manic edge to it. 

Ok, I've gotten one thing self-published since I first made that list, but there are more projects I've got lined up in my head. So I'm just going to go ahead and update my resolution list slightly and see how it goes:

• self-publish the next thing
• write one piece per fortnight on this blog (or on my self-publishing blog) 
• read at least one book by an author I admire
• do yoga/get healthier with eating and exercise
• wear less black
• do something good with my photos

They're not new, but they're still lovely and enticing goals for the year and I'm looking forward to going in pursuit of them. 

Wishing you joy and laughter as you head in search of your own goals and dreams in 2020.

I wish you all joy and success in chasing down your goals too.