journals are the heart of the soul

thinking a lot about journaling & journaling systems. i’ve been rereading the collected journals of writers i love (susan sontag in particular) and texts on writing by other writers i love (joan didion and bell hooks im looking at you!) and wondering how the simple act of taking pen to paper has become so so complicated. perhaps it’s due to marketing and hyperconsumerism, but journaling has become an activity more about the stationery themselves rather than the act. and i absolutely love stationery, i love my fountain pens and the wonderful experiencing of writing on creamy midori md paper. but i have been so focused on the materials, of perfecting a journaling system with the perfect pens, notebooks, and accessories, rather than the actual action of journaling, of writing to know what i think, paraphrased from didion.

[Image description: A colorful pencil drawing of a tuna in a small notebook, captioned: "TUNA." End description.]