Thoughts on a Resilient Journal Voice

And some new, seriously experimental, journal pages

I have a wickedly critical inner voice. It likes to thrash around inside my head, saying mean things and generally making a mess.

As luck (and some hard work over the years) would have it, the one place where I’m free from its exasperating chatter is my journal. There, the good always crowds out the bad.

I think it’s because I can be anything, do anything, and say anything in my journal. I can pursue my creative passions without worrying about how they fit into the grander scheme of things. In great contrast to my inner critic, my journal voice is funny, encouraging, imaginative, and resilient.

I’m so drawn to that part of myself right now. All I want to do is create exuberantly colourful, seriously experimental journal pages.

The ones I’m making these days, well, I’m still working out the particulars, but they’re something, that’s for sure. Two have emerged on the subjects of note writing and cake. Cake!

I’m using the word questionary* to describe the format because each page is filled with questions about everyday sorts of happenings, in this case having to do with notes and cake.

I’ve also been journaling the U.S. Constitution in the most colourful, puzzle-filled way possible. As a Canadian, I’ve never read it, and I want to learn more about what it says.

I’m approaching it one tiny step at a time, sentence by sentence, to make sure I don’t miss a thing. The pages I'm creating along the way are helping me think through the complicated parts and stay engaged with some of the less-than-scintillating details.

My inner critic has been worrying about where all of these pages fit. They’re so different in appearance and subject matter from most of my other work.

Sometimes it’s hard to know in the moment; it only becomes clear much later.

For now, though, the questionaries are colourful spaces for noticing things that are often overlooked and remembering things that are easily forgotten, like many of my previous pages — but with a twist because these are so particular in theme.

The Constitution pages feel like applied journaling, putting important elements of my reflective practice — like diving into the tiniest details and figuring out what they mean — to new use. I also see parallels between writing a vision for a nation and writing a vision for ourselves.

I don’t know if my current projects represent a brief detour or a whole new direction. Time will tell, but for now, I’m trying not to worry about it and just enjoy the ride.

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*Questionary is a variation of questionnaire, which I’ve just discovered and have taken an immediate liking to.

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