My Morning Ritual

I say I'm not a writer. That isn't to say I never write, but that up until now I haven't written anything I wanted others to read. I do write, every day.

Each morning when I get up I make breakfast, check emails and Facebook while I eat, and then I curl up on my bed with a warm, cozy, blanket that I've had for years and I write. With a pen and a journal. These are my personal thoughts, revelations, musings, memories, ideas. Whatever pops into my head during the half hour to an hour I spend writing in my journal goes onto the page. This is actually an exercise suggested in the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron called 'Morning Pages.'

Every morning you write three pages by hand, no typing allowed, to empty your thoughts, negative ones too into a personal journal. No one else is allowed to read these pages. You aren't even supposed to go back and read previous entries. In fact I'm a little afraid of what has come out on the page when I'm writing without thinking. It is also a way to get you, as a writer, to write. Every. Single. Day. Even if you have been stuck in a funk and feel you haven't written anything worthwhile you still have to write your Morning Pages. Even if you just write over and over again This is stupid, this is stupid, this is stupid. Eventually you'll get tired of writing "this is stupid" and start writing something else.

I have been writing consistently, every morning for a little over a year now. For Christmas in 2014 my brother and sister-in-law gave me The Artist's Way: Every Day, a companion book to The Artist's Way. I have both now, but never made it all the way through The Artist's Way, it felt too much like a textbook. Every Day gives one paragraph to reflect on or one idea to try to implement for each day of the year. So I write and I read that. Sometimes the reading really hits a chord, sometimes a nerve, but at least it gets me to stop and consider.

Writing at three pages a day, every day, I fill one of my journals in about two months. In fact, I just finished my current journal and started a new one this morning. I keep several extra journals on hand so I don't have to rush out a find a new one that I like. I'm very particular when it comes to journals. It has to be spiral bound, I've had the binding break on a journal before and now the pages fall out, it's very annoying, it must have lined pages, and it can't be huge. I like the ones that are about the size of a hardcover novel (about 6 inches by 8 inches). A stretchy band to hold it shut is also a plus.


So I write, I write every day, but I won't share those writings with you. My journal writing helps me to work out problems, maybe just air out some negative thoughts, or to ream out an individual that seriously pissed me off, but I couldn't come up with a comeback quick enough to say it to their face. I dream in my journals, sometimes cry in them. They don't always make sense, but they let me face my problems and maybe I'll be able to find some solutions eventually.