whippletree riel: Storycatching Isn't About Creating Perfection

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Storycatching Isn't About Creating Perfection | Making This Home

Sometimes, I look at a journal page and do a little hand jive when it?s done. ?It?s beautiful, Katie!? I boast silently. Jive, jive, jive.

I know you do that, too!

family journal

On the surface, I?m thinking that everything about this entry looks fabulous. Like ready for prom fabulous. I want you to feel this way about your journaling, too. Here?s the secret: Looking fabulous never has to equal being perfect.

When you journal, crossing off words is okay. (Check! I did it on this page.) Unintentionally changing the tense you?re writing in is okay. (Again, check!) Messing up with the date stamp, smudging words, and totally skipping any pretty papers, pens, and photos is okay.?Getting that story down on paper is what matters the most.

When Martin and I got married, he progressively gave me a series of gifts during our honeymoon. I received packets of 12?12 inch paper, glue, fun scissors and punches, stickers, and a giant scrapbook to hold everything. ?I know you like crafting and telling stories,? he told me.

And just like that, I thought, ?Yep! I?m going to be a scrapbooker.?

(Why I never thought to try scrapbooking in this 12?12 inch method before is a mystery. I dove right in.)

There was a problem with this new hobby of mine. It looked sort of like this:

perfection

(All I did was type in ?scrapbooking? on Pinterest. I?m pinning right here.)

All of a sudden, I wasn?t thinking about the story anymore. Instead, I was thinking about the perfect layout and how I needed all these things to make that pretty page happen.

I ?needed? to photograph everything in our lives several times over because the best scrapbook pages I saw had several shots of the same moment.
I ?needed? a better camera for said shots.
I ?needed? a photo printer.
I started to ?need? more and more things to decorate my stories with.
(this list could go on and on)

My?journaling came to a standstill. As a result, so did the storykeeping because I couldn?t get past this idea that every story had to be visually flawless.

It just didn?t work for me.

Type in ?journal? at Pinterest and see how things change.

journaling is imperfect

Ahhh. That?s more?me.

How about you?

Journaling is all about the story. Different people approach it in different ways. I feel like it?s okay to be messy or imperfect here. I feel like it?s okay to share pages of my journal no matter how goofy they turn out. When I use the term ?journal? instead of ?scrapbook? for my own art, I feel like it?s okay to be me.

When I start journaling, I remember this. I want you to, too:

Storycatching isn?t about creating perfection or having the perfect stuff to decorate with; it?s about capturing the moments of life.

one month to a better journal

My grandma always says, ?Life is messy.? Of course, she also says, ?Every day of life is beautiful in its very own way. Even if you don?t see it, Katie.? Relax and let your journal pages be that way, too. Flaws and all.

Psst? My journal page above is made from the pages of the new {Storykeeping Kit} ? Dreaming over at Gadanke. You can see some other imperfect pages from my journal there.