Nothing like a good pen. I could write and write and write with a good pen. And, lined paper, preferably wide spaced, like the kind a child learning how to first draw her letters practices on.
My preferred pen is the Pentel refillable EnerGel. It glides smoothly and quickly over the page. Its liquid gel ink hits the spiral notebook, diary or legal pad with aplomb.
I write every day or try to in my spiral notebook. I attempt to get it done before anything else enters my brain or I see something that takes my focus away. I usually feed the cats, get a cup of coffee and head back up to my room and write while Cindi nuzzles her nose, lifting her blanket and covering herself with a fluffy layer, beside me.
My life is important enough to annotate, dictate and re-evaluate. That’s just a cute sentence but seriously, I let that energel pen rip for at least three pages.
I started writing morning pages years ago when I first read Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. It must have been about fourteen or fifteen years ago. I get all the junk out of my negative, monkey mind. I propose my schedule for the day and imagine the future. I complain, judge, criticize and rage on the page. And then, I can shower or bathe with all that behind me and released. I can start my day.
I have written volumes of early dawn ramblings in plenty of spiral notebooks. That’s why it’s so important to have the right pen. The stream of thought is faster than my typing but I have a rhythm with my handwriting. I can tell how angry I am by the size of the block letters that take up five or six spaces. I swirl my script when I am enchanted with the world around me. I jot down facts I would otherwise forget, later.
I re-read my intimate diaries from time to time. The same issues keep coming up, year after year, until I resolve them or find solution, usually as action that needs to be taken with plenty of forgiveness, self-love and acceptance. And when I improve, my nearest and dearest, my attitude and my perspective improve too. I see my growth, my flaws and my transformation in written form, before my very eyes, as a testament to the process.
I take my current journal with me everywhere I go. And, most of the time, I am gripping a Pentel EnerGel, medium or fine point, in blue, black or purple ink.