Molly Childers : Juicy Journals Wild Words Series : Introduction

Juicy Journals & Wild Words

By Molly J. Anderson-Childers

Greetings, faithful friends. Thanks for tuning in. This month, I’m thrilled to announce that I am launching a new series, exclusive to Creativity Portal. Every other month, you’ll be treated to articles, resources, and project ideas specific to creating juicy journals… in fact, I’m even going to venture into cyberspace to create my own blog. You can check it out at stealingplums.blogspot.com online. Modeled after my own haphazard journals, it will be an eclectic mixture of introspective journaling and creative wiritng — stories, poetry, and excerpts from my first novel, Stealing Plums, as well as other literary works-in-progress. I’m hoping to incorporate fabulous photographs, as well as my own luscious watercolors and collages.

In real-time, I’ll share fantastic projects and prompts to help you create unique creative journals. What is a creative journal? Well you may ask. My vision of a creative journal is a huge blank sketchbook, a tabula rasa where I can let my creative juices flow freely… a big white page to fill with red-hot poetry and watercolor landscapes of Venus and found art collages and souvenirs and photos and little scraps of stories. Bulging at the seams, dripping blue paint and silvery glitter all over the floor — watch out, you’ve got inspiration all over your fancy red shoes! Better take them off and go barefoot instead.

We’ll create journals of every stripe, size, shape and color. I have some exquisite projects in store for you — a dream journal, a writer’s notebook, tiny travel-sized journals that fit in your pocket, journals to give away and journals just for you. I have so many ideas, and I’m so excited to share these projects and inspirations with you.

I’ll also give you some ideas for fun word games, doodle starters, poetry and writing prompts, questions to ponder, and ideas for journal-based art projects to help keep your journals juicy and fresh. I’m interested in your ideas, too! If you have a journaling question, project, or prompt to share with our readers, please email me at stealingplums@yahoo.com. I’d love to include your ideas in the next “Juicy Journals and Wild Words” article, coming up in May 2008. If you have an idea for a customized journal project, but can’t seem to get it off the ground, drop me a line. We’ll figure it out together, and if I can’t come up with an idea I’ll be happy to pass it on to our resourceful readers.

I’ll also take you out on Inspiration Walks, asking you to take your journal outside the safe realm of your studio and brave the real world. Journaling and blogging at home is much different from writing in a funky little coffee-shop, or at a table at the local bakery eating an apricot scone, or out on a hiking trail in the woods. Sitting on a hot rock in the middle of the Mojave Desert as a raven flies overhead is a far cry from curling up in bed to write on a snowy morning (where I am currently writing this article, seeing as it‘s freezing outside), fat flakes drifting down and down and no end in sight. Even as I write these words, I see a snow shovel looming large in my future and long for that sun-warmed rock in the desert desolation, the hush of raven’s wings. A journal can anchor you in the present, on a slow snowy morning; or it can send you soaring into a fantasy of summertime: wearing short shorts again, getting a sunburn, sweating it out on the trail instead of slaving away with a snow shovel.

I believe that everyone is an artist. I have said this before; I’ll repeat it now. Everyone has a seed of creativity inside; whether you sing in the shower or doodle while you’re on the phone, or just dream of writing a novel someday, there’s something inside you that cries out to be expressed. A journal is the perfect place to plant that seed, and see what strange savage wildflowers blossom there. And for artists and other creative souls, a journal can be an immensely important tool. It can root you firmly in the here and now, minutiae and minor details of your daily life — a mood or a landscape, a place to stand. It can also give you wings; the freedom to fly away, explore, gain new insights and inspirations. A microscope turned inwards and trained upon your soul, is a powerful tool, a key to self-knowledge, expression, and healing. It can also help you to achieve your creative dreams in ways you never imagined possible. It is not a book, but a path of opals and moon glow, to lead you through the forest of thorns. Take off your shoes. Squirm your toes in the cool white sand, the luminescent jewels cool as tombstones, and follow me into the dark. Trust the path, trust this: the path of opals and bright silver blue moonlight will lead us through and into and all around, in a winding coiled snaky path, until at last we come to the still water at the center, a quiet pool reflecting the sky, a place where all questions may be answered.

Take off your shoes. Feel the cool silk of sand slip betwixt your toes… and follow me through the Blackthorn-trees. •

Author’s Note: I plan to continue with my interview series, “Creating a Fun, Fabulous Career in the Arts,” bringing you a fresh interview each month with creative souls in all different fields and walks of life. I will also continue my “Multicultural Muses” series here on the Creativity Portal site, with one difference: I’m alternating between juicy journaling articles and marvelous muse-related articles every month, contributing six of each within the next year to this site, exclusive to Creativity Portal.

© Molly J. Anderson-Childers. All rights reserved.

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About the Author | More by Molly Anderson-Childers
Molly J. Anderson-Childers is a wildly creative soul living in Durango, CO. She is a writer, artist, and creative arts instructor. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Fort Lewis College with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, and successfully completed their Elementary Teacher Education Program. Her work has appeared in various publications, including The Durango Telegraph, Southwest Colorado Arts Perspective, Images, Voice Be Heard, The Four Corners Business Journal and On the Wings of Poetry. To contact Ms. Childers, please email her at: stealingplums@yahoo.com or send a snail mail to P.O. Box 4281, Durango, CO 81302-4281.

02/25/08