A meditation on collapse, continuity, and the center that survives what falls apart (Yeats was right about the systems of the world, but not about us). This essay reimagines Yeats’s “The Second Coming”—examining what it means to hold steady in an unraveling world.
Thank you so much for this beautiful reminder. Just what my heart needed today.
How I hold my center is by beginning my day early in the morning on the patio in my garden, watching the hummingbirds bathe in the birdbath, hot tea in hand. I read the daily lesson from A Course in Miracles, meditating on the message and writing out my gratitudes. My writing starts with Thank you for this new day and the miracles that occur today, and write out all my fears and concerns, giving them over for clarity and guidance. I then bring that love back into the house, gently waken my sleeping household and helping them begin their day feeling loved and safe.
Oh, thank you for this lovely little note, which left me feeling filled, soothed, and at more peace by the end than when I started. Now that is a gift. I especially loved the consciousness with which you bring all that love back into your house and offer it ot your family. Reading this, I can only imagine that your presence is as soothing as the picture you create. I am so grateful to you for this comment, which is now a part of my own center will hold today.
You know, you make me think. For years, I have said I want to have hummingbirds, so I should get a hummingbird feeder; yet, I somehow never have. I am between homes right now as I sort through this wild and crazy transition in my life, but you've settled it for me. When I get a new place, I am getting a hummingbird feeder, stat. Why on earth have I waited all this time?
I have never done a course in Miracles. Is this your first time working through it? What do you love about it? How has this little ritual changed the course of your days?
I was first introduced to A Course In Miracles in the 1970s as a teenager. It was the first spiritual writing I read where I thought yes, I remember this to be true. I have done the workbook for student lessons in the book over the years many times, and as I have had more life experience and spiritual growth I have been able to understand and embrace them more fully. It has been really helpful to me to have other writers like Marianne Williamson, Sean Reagan and Pam Grout's interpretations of the text and workbook sections of the book.
Nothing that is real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of God,
Paul, you know how I feel about your work, and what it has gifted me over the years, so you can guess how I feel about your comment on this essay. Thank you for taking the time to read and comment; it means so very much. And I would love to know—what is holding you?
Thank you, dearest, for the validation of enoughness.
And thank you even more for pointing out that we do untwist. We do. Even the best contortionists among us eventually realize how awful it feels to fold and bend in on ourselves, and we slowly, tenderly (sometimes agonizingly so) unfurl and stretch and take up space again. It makes me think of the Rilke quote
"I want to unfold.
I don’t want to stay folded anywhere,
because where I am folded, there I am a lie."
It is in the unfolding that we can hold, I think, and I'm so glad you brought that here today.
Oh, Jeanette, thank you so much!!! Yeats' poem has been rattling around in my brain during these very challenging times, and of course your words make perfect sense of his words and how our Centers can and do continue to hold us, individually and collectively. I am so very much looking forwrd to your weekly What Holds essays; I know that they will help me to also find those things in my life that are keeping me and my Center intact, despite the necessary but oh so frightening and painful disintegration of so many out there systems and institutions and beliefs.
To answer your question of what is holding me: daily meditation, frequent journaling, but probably most of all, "arting" (i.e., spending time immersed in creative pursuits), and in particular making handmade books! In the first 22 weeks of this tumultuous year, I've made 25 books, and there are more on the way, both in my mind and on my work table. I can only spend a day or two between books before I start to feel the outside world closing in and my mental and emotional state starting to spiral into darkness and despair, so I get back into my studio and get to work cutting paper and fabric and folding and gluing and stitching ... There are times when I am concerned that this is all a distraction, that I should be doing SOMETHING more, but then in the days in between books I realize that I cannot do ANYTHING to help ANYONE if I spiral into despair and curl up into a fetal position in my bed ... so, I make books!
Oh Deb, how i love it when I see the name of a beloved Wild Heart pop up here. So curious isn't it, how some poems, and some lines nestle themselves into our beings to stay, revisiting when times call for them, twisting around in us and helping us figure out what we really believe.
I am so glad that you found some truth in my words and am entirely buoyed to know you're looking forward to the series (perhaps that will help me hold to it, ha). I don't know that they will count as full-on essays, but little bits and pieces of my own holding, which will hopefully transfer or translate, in some way, into your own.
And now I have so many questions to ask you.
- What sort of meditation do you practice?
- What kind of journals and pens do you use, and do you have any system or prompts you utilize?
- What else falls under the category of arting (oh, what a delightful word) for you?
And the books! Oh my goodness, handmade books! I am fascinated, and I want to know more, see pictures, and learn everything.
I hear you when you say you can only spend a day or two away from this act before you feel the world closing in, and what a gift it is that you have that and know this and ACT. So many times in life I think we know the things that keep the world at bay and for some mysterious reason have such a damn hard time actually DOING them (why, pray tell, is that?).
You say:
"There are times when I am concerned that this is all a distraction, that I should be doing SOMETHING more, but then in the days in between books I realize that I cannot do ANYTHING to help ANYONE if I spiral into despair "
My god, the wisdom. Isn't it so wild how quickly we can turn our saving grace into something as negative as a distraction, as if being distracted from the madness isn't a key bit of medicine for survival? I love that these books are not your distraction from something MORE, they ARE your something more, because they keep you here, center holding, steady for all in your sphere.
Thank you so much for sharing this all with me. It was a balm for my soul.
Meditation: when I was a young teenager (in the 1970s), my mom learned Transcendental Meditation (popularized by the Beetles!!!) and took my sister and I to be "trained" in that method, probably close to 45 years ago now. I practiced that for awhile, but nowadays, I use Insight Timer and it's many many different teachers and methods. Favorite Insight Timer teachers are Sarah Blondin, Fleur Chambers, Andy Hobson, Tony Brady, Arielle Hecht ...
Although I make books, I tend to journal in books I purchase! I'm currently using a Leuchtturm journal, I've also used a journals from Paperage, Archer & Olive, and Scribbles That Matter. I'm not too picky, although I prefer blank pages, paper heavy enough for using fountain pens, and A5 size. I have a nice STM A5 sized journal cover/case/pouch that all of my journals that I'm writing in go into, as there's pockets and whatnot to hold pens, exacto knives, glue sticks and other stuff that I use because I like to "decorate" my journal pages with washi tape, stickers, etc. I use fountain pens to write in my journals with, I've got 10 different pens that I have with different colored inks; I've got an expensive Pelikan pen that definitely writes like a dream, and a couple of sort-of-expensive fountain pens made by Monte Verde, but I honestly think that my favorite pens to write with regularly are very inexpensive Pilot Metropolitan and Sailor Compass pens. I've got a couple of books about journaling and lots of articles with prompts and the like, but I tend to just write in my journal when I feel the need, and most often that's when I'm struggling with something, like a relationship challenge or other normal life issues - it helps me sort out all of the noise that can get swirling in my head.
Other "arting" activities besides bookbinding (which I'm totally obsessed with this year) is art journaling - drawing/painting/collaging/stamping/stenciling/all-sorts-of-mixed-media stuff on small pages, normally in 5"x7" or 6"x8" books, and these are mostly books that I have made, using either mixed media or watercolor paper. I really like doing small pages that will never get hung on a wall or displayed in any way, so that I can just create whatever I want to create and it doesn't have to ever be "good". A couple of years back, I took an almost year-long art journaling course called Wanderlust; I follow Amy Maricle/Mindful Arts Studio and love her weekly slow drawing sessions; I've learned a bit about Zentangle and have a couple of books with patterns; I'm a HORRIBLE "collector" of all kinds of online art classes (I find them, get real excited, buy them, and then don't do them ...) so I've got a HUGE spreadsheet where I've listed them with the hopes that I'll pick one every so often and actually do it ... nice idea, but over the past few years, I think I've done 2-3 out of the 60+ classes I've "collected"!!!
The first handmade book I made was in 2010, when a group of women I knew from photography school started talking about learning to make books that we could put our photographs in. After that class, I took some local classes and bought some books, and made blank books with my photographs on the covers for a few years ... and then stopped making books (and doing photography). In early 2022, I stumbled across an online 5 day bookmaking course given by Ali Manning of Vintage Page Designs, and I got hooked on making books from that one class. I joined her Handmade Book Club (a monthly subscription that gives access to monthly book project tutorial videos as well as a lovely community of bookmakers) and the rest is history. I made 30+ books in 2022, almost 50 books in 2023, almost 40 books last year, and 25 books so far this year. I was posting all of my books on Facebook in photo albums until I got pretty disillusioned with social media late last year ... so far this year, I have posted some photos of this years books on Instagram ... so you can go to those social media sites to see pics ...
Yeah, it's only this year that I've realized that arting/making books is something that I just have to do in order to stay even remotely sane! Previously, I'd do some arting/bookmaking, that would make me feel good/sane/stable, then "life" would intrude and I'd stop, I'd struggle/spiral/fall into the inevitable pit, and wonder what the hell went "wrong" ... then I'd gather enough resolve or energy to do something creative, and I'd start to feel better. With this year's intensity and increasing insanity, I figured out quickly what I need to do to stay afloat ... so far, it's working ...
I knew, after the election results, that this year was just going to be extremely difficult, for me personally (I'm such a complete empath, I don't care how much I try to insulate myself from the horrors of the world around me, that energy still finds me and can decimate me), as well as for everyone else in my sphere and beyond. For many years now, I've chosen a word/words/phrase for the year (instead of a ridiculous resolution), and 2025's phrase was "make ripples": I knew that in order to survive the insanity that would likely be released, I needed to do more than simply send money to worthy causes and sign petitions, but at the same time, I'm an uber-introvert, so marching in rallies and protests is just not going to happen, no matter how much I might wish that I could be "that person" ... and so I "remembered" that even if you just toss a small pebble into a pond, the result is ripples that spread out and touch a lot, and I decided that I'd find small things that I could do and know/trust that it's making ripples that are helping the world be a better place for all. I'd thought that I'd find a volunteering job to do nearby, like work for the local food bank, or help a local group make burritos for the homeless (it's a great group called Burrito Brigade!!!) ... I have yet to do any volunteering, because you know, life throws sh*t at you when you're least expecting it, like having your 63 year old brother-in-law be unexpectedly diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer a few days before my 67th birthday, with a prognosis or "weeks" left, and have him die 20 days later, just a few days after we managed to get the family to see him and say our final goodbyes ... But I am making books, and I don't know if that's much of a pebble to toss into the pond, or what the ripples are doing, but it's what I'm doing right now, and I am trusting that it's helping someone, somewhere, somehow.
A fun and exciting thing that's happened because of my bookmaking is that a local artist/friend who has seen the pictuires of my books that I've posted on social media for the past few years contacted me and asked me to join her group of women artists to show my books at their annual group show/sale that will be happening in October, so I'm going to do that! I just need to keep myself centered, making books because I want to and love to, and not allowing myself to drift into making books in order to have anyone else like them or buy them cuz I know (and have experienced) that the easy drift of wanting to do this for external approval and/or monetization is DEATH to my creative spirit!
Thank you, Jeanette, for your writings and for your asking me all of these great questions!!! I frequently wish that we lived closer so that we could actually get together face-to-face, because I think that we'd have so many great conversations and share so much with each other ...
Oh goodness, aren't you wonderful to take so much time to answer all my questions!
You know, I'm not even entirely sure I understand what Transcendental Meditation is, but I do love Insight Timer, and Sarah Blondin is definitely a favorite (do you follow her Substack?). I'll have to look up and follow the other teachers you mentioned.
I've been keeping it very simple lately with the mindfulness app on my Apple Watch, which involves just five minutes of slow, deep breathing. It's very cool to see the impact on my heart rate and heart rate variability. Immediate!
"I'm currently using a Leuchtturm journal, I've also used a journals from Paperage, Archer & Olive, and Scribbles That Matter."
Off I go to discover and covet new journals!
I, too, prefer unlined, heavy paper, but I'm an A4 girl, and yes, to fountain pens only - I have a ton, but tend to use my Lamy Safari almost exclusively, along with an ink called (appropriately) Writer's Blood. And what is this about a journal cover/case/pouch? Now I absolutely feel I need one of these.
I love all you share about all your arting activities, and laughed with so much understanding about your collection of courses. Although I'm very proud of the courses I have created and run, I have a terrible record of actually completing ANY I have purchased for myself.
I would love to see images, so I will have to go over to Facebook and take a look. We may have to do a book-making workshop with you for Wild Heart Writing?!
I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your brother and hold you in the shock and heartbreak of that. It makes such perfect sense that you would turn to making beautiful things to help integrate that loss.
"But I am making books, and I don't know if that's much of a pebble to toss into the pond, or what the ripples are doing, but it's what I'm doing right now, and I am trusting that it's helping someone, somewhere, somehow."
This is just beautiful, and I think belongs in a longer photo essay about the whole process, which perhaps I can nudge you toward writing.
And oh, wouldn't it be heavenly to sit over tea and talk for hours? Yes, Please!
I read this before seeing it was from you. Of course it is. The depth. The truth. I love you. Thank you 🙏🏼
Oh Helen. Thank you for this. There is something so wonderful about your comment that made me feel so seen, so known, and so loved. 🥰
Depth offers such capacity to know ourselves and know we are known. Here you are 🙏🏼
Thank you so much for this beautiful reminder. Just what my heart needed today.
How I hold my center is by beginning my day early in the morning on the patio in my garden, watching the hummingbirds bathe in the birdbath, hot tea in hand. I read the daily lesson from A Course in Miracles, meditating on the message and writing out my gratitudes. My writing starts with Thank you for this new day and the miracles that occur today, and write out all my fears and concerns, giving them over for clarity and guidance. I then bring that love back into the house, gently waken my sleeping household and helping them begin their day feeling loved and safe.
Oh, thank you for this lovely little note, which left me feeling filled, soothed, and at more peace by the end than when I started. Now that is a gift. I especially loved the consciousness with which you bring all that love back into your house and offer it ot your family. Reading this, I can only imagine that your presence is as soothing as the picture you create. I am so grateful to you for this comment, which is now a part of my own center will hold today.
You know, you make me think. For years, I have said I want to have hummingbirds, so I should get a hummingbird feeder; yet, I somehow never have. I am between homes right now as I sort through this wild and crazy transition in my life, but you've settled it for me. When I get a new place, I am getting a hummingbird feeder, stat. Why on earth have I waited all this time?
I have never done a course in Miracles. Is this your first time working through it? What do you love about it? How has this little ritual changed the course of your days?
Thank you for your note❤️
I was first introduced to A Course In Miracles in the 1970s as a teenager. It was the first spiritual writing I read where I thought yes, I remember this to be true. I have done the workbook for student lessons in the book over the years many times, and as I have had more life experience and spiritual growth I have been able to understand and embrace them more fully. It has been really helpful to me to have other writers like Marianne Williamson, Sean Reagan and Pam Grout's interpretations of the text and workbook sections of the book.
Nothing that is real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of God,
Lovely.
Paul, you know how I feel about your work, and what it has gifted me over the years, so you can guess how I feel about your comment on this essay. Thank you for taking the time to read and comment; it means so very much. And I would love to know—what is holding you?
Yes - it is enough...
Also this "We twist ourselves into pretzels trying to convince people to love us when they are determined to go.
We twist ourselves into even tighter pretzels, trying to keep ourselves in places we were never meant to stay.
And still, we hold." Truth... and we untwist...
Thank you, dearest, for the validation of enoughness.
And thank you even more for pointing out that we do untwist. We do. Even the best contortionists among us eventually realize how awful it feels to fold and bend in on ourselves, and we slowly, tenderly (sometimes agonizingly so) unfurl and stretch and take up space again. It makes me think of the Rilke quote
"I want to unfold.
I don’t want to stay folded anywhere,
because where I am folded, there I am a lie."
It is in the unfolding that we can hold, I think, and I'm so glad you brought that here today.
Oh, Jeanette, thank you so much!!! Yeats' poem has been rattling around in my brain during these very challenging times, and of course your words make perfect sense of his words and how our Centers can and do continue to hold us, individually and collectively. I am so very much looking forwrd to your weekly What Holds essays; I know that they will help me to also find those things in my life that are keeping me and my Center intact, despite the necessary but oh so frightening and painful disintegration of so many out there systems and institutions and beliefs.
To answer your question of what is holding me: daily meditation, frequent journaling, but probably most of all, "arting" (i.e., spending time immersed in creative pursuits), and in particular making handmade books! In the first 22 weeks of this tumultuous year, I've made 25 books, and there are more on the way, both in my mind and on my work table. I can only spend a day or two between books before I start to feel the outside world closing in and my mental and emotional state starting to spiral into darkness and despair, so I get back into my studio and get to work cutting paper and fabric and folding and gluing and stitching ... There are times when I am concerned that this is all a distraction, that I should be doing SOMETHING more, but then in the days in between books I realize that I cannot do ANYTHING to help ANYONE if I spiral into despair and curl up into a fetal position in my bed ... so, I make books!
Oh Deb, how i love it when I see the name of a beloved Wild Heart pop up here. So curious isn't it, how some poems, and some lines nestle themselves into our beings to stay, revisiting when times call for them, twisting around in us and helping us figure out what we really believe.
I am so glad that you found some truth in my words and am entirely buoyed to know you're looking forward to the series (perhaps that will help me hold to it, ha). I don't know that they will count as full-on essays, but little bits and pieces of my own holding, which will hopefully transfer or translate, in some way, into your own.
And now I have so many questions to ask you.
- What sort of meditation do you practice?
- What kind of journals and pens do you use, and do you have any system or prompts you utilize?
- What else falls under the category of arting (oh, what a delightful word) for you?
And the books! Oh my goodness, handmade books! I am fascinated, and I want to know more, see pictures, and learn everything.
I hear you when you say you can only spend a day or two away from this act before you feel the world closing in, and what a gift it is that you have that and know this and ACT. So many times in life I think we know the things that keep the world at bay and for some mysterious reason have such a damn hard time actually DOING them (why, pray tell, is that?).
You say:
"There are times when I am concerned that this is all a distraction, that I should be doing SOMETHING more, but then in the days in between books I realize that I cannot do ANYTHING to help ANYONE if I spiral into despair "
My god, the wisdom. Isn't it so wild how quickly we can turn our saving grace into something as negative as a distraction, as if being distracted from the madness isn't a key bit of medicine for survival? I love that these books are not your distraction from something MORE, they ARE your something more, because they keep you here, center holding, steady for all in your sphere.
Thank you so much for sharing this all with me. It was a balm for my soul.
Meditation: when I was a young teenager (in the 1970s), my mom learned Transcendental Meditation (popularized by the Beetles!!!) and took my sister and I to be "trained" in that method, probably close to 45 years ago now. I practiced that for awhile, but nowadays, I use Insight Timer and it's many many different teachers and methods. Favorite Insight Timer teachers are Sarah Blondin, Fleur Chambers, Andy Hobson, Tony Brady, Arielle Hecht ...
Although I make books, I tend to journal in books I purchase! I'm currently using a Leuchtturm journal, I've also used a journals from Paperage, Archer & Olive, and Scribbles That Matter. I'm not too picky, although I prefer blank pages, paper heavy enough for using fountain pens, and A5 size. I have a nice STM A5 sized journal cover/case/pouch that all of my journals that I'm writing in go into, as there's pockets and whatnot to hold pens, exacto knives, glue sticks and other stuff that I use because I like to "decorate" my journal pages with washi tape, stickers, etc. I use fountain pens to write in my journals with, I've got 10 different pens that I have with different colored inks; I've got an expensive Pelikan pen that definitely writes like a dream, and a couple of sort-of-expensive fountain pens made by Monte Verde, but I honestly think that my favorite pens to write with regularly are very inexpensive Pilot Metropolitan and Sailor Compass pens. I've got a couple of books about journaling and lots of articles with prompts and the like, but I tend to just write in my journal when I feel the need, and most often that's when I'm struggling with something, like a relationship challenge or other normal life issues - it helps me sort out all of the noise that can get swirling in my head.
Other "arting" activities besides bookbinding (which I'm totally obsessed with this year) is art journaling - drawing/painting/collaging/stamping/stenciling/all-sorts-of-mixed-media stuff on small pages, normally in 5"x7" or 6"x8" books, and these are mostly books that I have made, using either mixed media or watercolor paper. I really like doing small pages that will never get hung on a wall or displayed in any way, so that I can just create whatever I want to create and it doesn't have to ever be "good". A couple of years back, I took an almost year-long art journaling course called Wanderlust; I follow Amy Maricle/Mindful Arts Studio and love her weekly slow drawing sessions; I've learned a bit about Zentangle and have a couple of books with patterns; I'm a HORRIBLE "collector" of all kinds of online art classes (I find them, get real excited, buy them, and then don't do them ...) so I've got a HUGE spreadsheet where I've listed them with the hopes that I'll pick one every so often and actually do it ... nice idea, but over the past few years, I think I've done 2-3 out of the 60+ classes I've "collected"!!!
The first handmade book I made was in 2010, when a group of women I knew from photography school started talking about learning to make books that we could put our photographs in. After that class, I took some local classes and bought some books, and made blank books with my photographs on the covers for a few years ... and then stopped making books (and doing photography). In early 2022, I stumbled across an online 5 day bookmaking course given by Ali Manning of Vintage Page Designs, and I got hooked on making books from that one class. I joined her Handmade Book Club (a monthly subscription that gives access to monthly book project tutorial videos as well as a lovely community of bookmakers) and the rest is history. I made 30+ books in 2022, almost 50 books in 2023, almost 40 books last year, and 25 books so far this year. I was posting all of my books on Facebook in photo albums until I got pretty disillusioned with social media late last year ... so far this year, I have posted some photos of this years books on Instagram ... so you can go to those social media sites to see pics ...
Yeah, it's only this year that I've realized that arting/making books is something that I just have to do in order to stay even remotely sane! Previously, I'd do some arting/bookmaking, that would make me feel good/sane/stable, then "life" would intrude and I'd stop, I'd struggle/spiral/fall into the inevitable pit, and wonder what the hell went "wrong" ... then I'd gather enough resolve or energy to do something creative, and I'd start to feel better. With this year's intensity and increasing insanity, I figured out quickly what I need to do to stay afloat ... so far, it's working ...
I knew, after the election results, that this year was just going to be extremely difficult, for me personally (I'm such a complete empath, I don't care how much I try to insulate myself from the horrors of the world around me, that energy still finds me and can decimate me), as well as for everyone else in my sphere and beyond. For many years now, I've chosen a word/words/phrase for the year (instead of a ridiculous resolution), and 2025's phrase was "make ripples": I knew that in order to survive the insanity that would likely be released, I needed to do more than simply send money to worthy causes and sign petitions, but at the same time, I'm an uber-introvert, so marching in rallies and protests is just not going to happen, no matter how much I might wish that I could be "that person" ... and so I "remembered" that even if you just toss a small pebble into a pond, the result is ripples that spread out and touch a lot, and I decided that I'd find small things that I could do and know/trust that it's making ripples that are helping the world be a better place for all. I'd thought that I'd find a volunteering job to do nearby, like work for the local food bank, or help a local group make burritos for the homeless (it's a great group called Burrito Brigade!!!) ... I have yet to do any volunteering, because you know, life throws sh*t at you when you're least expecting it, like having your 63 year old brother-in-law be unexpectedly diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer a few days before my 67th birthday, with a prognosis or "weeks" left, and have him die 20 days later, just a few days after we managed to get the family to see him and say our final goodbyes ... But I am making books, and I don't know if that's much of a pebble to toss into the pond, or what the ripples are doing, but it's what I'm doing right now, and I am trusting that it's helping someone, somewhere, somehow.
A fun and exciting thing that's happened because of my bookmaking is that a local artist/friend who has seen the pictuires of my books that I've posted on social media for the past few years contacted me and asked me to join her group of women artists to show my books at their annual group show/sale that will be happening in October, so I'm going to do that! I just need to keep myself centered, making books because I want to and love to, and not allowing myself to drift into making books in order to have anyone else like them or buy them cuz I know (and have experienced) that the easy drift of wanting to do this for external approval and/or monetization is DEATH to my creative spirit!
Thank you, Jeanette, for your writings and for your asking me all of these great questions!!! I frequently wish that we lived closer so that we could actually get together face-to-face, because I think that we'd have so many great conversations and share so much with each other ...
Oh goodness, aren't you wonderful to take so much time to answer all my questions!
You know, I'm not even entirely sure I understand what Transcendental Meditation is, but I do love Insight Timer, and Sarah Blondin is definitely a favorite (do you follow her Substack?). I'll have to look up and follow the other teachers you mentioned.
I've been keeping it very simple lately with the mindfulness app on my Apple Watch, which involves just five minutes of slow, deep breathing. It's very cool to see the impact on my heart rate and heart rate variability. Immediate!
"I'm currently using a Leuchtturm journal, I've also used a journals from Paperage, Archer & Olive, and Scribbles That Matter."
Off I go to discover and covet new journals!
I, too, prefer unlined, heavy paper, but I'm an A4 girl, and yes, to fountain pens only - I have a ton, but tend to use my Lamy Safari almost exclusively, along with an ink called (appropriately) Writer's Blood. And what is this about a journal cover/case/pouch? Now I absolutely feel I need one of these.
I love all you share about all your arting activities, and laughed with so much understanding about your collection of courses. Although I'm very proud of the courses I have created and run, I have a terrible record of actually completing ANY I have purchased for myself.
I would love to see images, so I will have to go over to Facebook and take a look. We may have to do a book-making workshop with you for Wild Heart Writing?!
I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your brother and hold you in the shock and heartbreak of that. It makes such perfect sense that you would turn to making beautiful things to help integrate that loss.
"But I am making books, and I don't know if that's much of a pebble to toss into the pond, or what the ripples are doing, but it's what I'm doing right now, and I am trusting that it's helping someone, somewhere, somehow."
This is just beautiful, and I think belongs in a longer photo essay about the whole process, which perhaps I can nudge you toward writing.
And oh, wouldn't it be heavenly to sit over tea and talk for hours? Yes, Please!