Back in 2012, I bought Katr a five year journal for Christmas. A five year journal is a little book with five years' worth of space to record a line or two about your day. I got Katr the Happiness Project Five Year Journal, because she'd enjoyed the book.
While she found the daily quotes about happiness kind of relentless and oppressive, ("QUIT TELLING ME HOW TO FEEL, BOOK!!") Katr still managed to write a little something in there every day and I thought "This is so COOL. I want one of these!"
So in 2013, I bought one for myself - the Jane-A-Day Five Year Journal. And every night, I write something in there.
Here's what a page from the journal looks like, if you're interested. You should all get one, they're super fun.
I have always wanted to keep a regular journal, but I'm obviously too lazy to blog regularly, I hate writing long hand and most of my digital journals just end up turning into wank fests (the angsty kind, not the kind you want to wank to). So the five year journal is PERFECT - I can record a few salient details about events or feelings or weird dreams or funny shit I might otherwise forget, and it takes me 2 minutes a day.
But the BEST part of the Five Year Journal is being able to look back over the previous years and see how things have changed, how things have totally NOT changed and the unconscious patterns you've developed in your life. It's sobering to see how much you obsess over the same things, year after year. It's fun to remember the little details of days from three years ago, when you tried a new recipe or had a really good phone conversation with your best friend. And it's hilarious when we make random plans with our friends and I'll notice the day before we get together that we'd gotten together on the same weekend the year before, or played the same game, or gone out to the same place, or bitched about the same things.
It's also a great way to keep track of your first eggnog latte of the season every year. Because I do that. This year, for example, my first eggnog latte of the season was today.
I'm a little sad because I am on the last year of my Jane-a-Day Journal and I have to START FRESH next year. While it's kind of delightful to face a blank page, I'll miss re-reading the previous year's entries before recording the day's events. So here are a very few of my favourite five year journal things that I will have to start anew in 2018:
BEST COINCIDENCES:
July 26, 2013 - I happened to be in Calgary for a family reunion and my oldest childhood friend Chma came by and picked me up and I spent a lovely morning with her and her awesome kids at a splash park, drinking lattes.
July 26, 2017 - The same date, FOUR YEARS LATER - Chma and her family happened to be in Vancouver, so I got to meet up with them and have lattes! I hadn't seen them in the intervening four years.
Oct 15, 2014 - I starting writing my play The Good Bride!
Oct 15, 2015 - Was the first preview of The Good Bride at Northern Light Theatre!
REFERENCES I WAS SURE I WOULD REMEMBER THE FOLLOWING YEAR BUT NOW HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY MEANT
Feb 29, 2014 (not a date that actually occurred): "How I long for the clamour of the chestnut man."
Mar 21, 2015: "Thank you for your patience, fucky!"
May 28, 2015: "It is better to have a dead person in your house than someone from Pisa."
BEST ONE LINE ENTRIES
Jan 21, 2015: Tanya tied me to a chair during savasana today.
Oct 26, 2013: Stole neighbour's zucchini and lied about it HAVE NEVER FELT MORE ALIVE.
Nov 12, 2013: Clafoutis.
Jan 11, 2014: There's a wind warning in Vancouver - and another wind warning IN MY PANTS.
I have tried to foist the five year journal on a few folks over the years and I don't think any of them EVER used them. So many this idea is delightful only to me. But if you think it sounds fun, they're not too pricey and make a great stocking stuffer! YOU'RE WELCOME. And thank you for your patience, fucky.
