Mining My Commonplace Books

My work table in our upstairs bedroom

Mining my commonplace books for future blog posts and projects

I seem to think better with a pen in my hand.

Last week I took advantage of a back-to-school door-buster sale to purchase three new spiral notebooks for 19 cents each.  How small an investment to bring so much joy to my life!  I use these ordinary notebooks as commonplace books, repositories for lists, interesting newspaper and magazine clippings, ticket stubs from museum visits, and most importantly, interesting quotes from the books I read.  I now have quite a pile going back years, and like a cabinet of curiosities, these collections of my jottings are something of a reflection of my Self.

I like that these analog notebooks are hand written.  I seem to think better with a pen or pencil in my hand, and copying out quotes by hand slows me down and I feel closer to the author in some weird way.  And then, I just like the look of cursive handwriting.  Years ago when I was in school, I used to have a huge callus on my middle finger from where I held my pen or pencil.  These days, there’s hardly a discernible bump.  We have so few occasions to handwrite anything anymore.  My notebooks still provide that pleasure for me.

From time to time I like re-reading my notebooks.  Right now I plan to go through them slowly to mine them for ideas for future blog posts or larger projects.  That means copying out useful passages (again) onto loose-leaf notepaper so that I can organize these random writings into categories.  For me, this is a labor of love.

I do get satisfaction from knowing how little money it takes for me to quest for purpose and meaning in my life.  The public library provides an endless supply of reading material that is so often the springboard for my thoughts.  Add to those free books a simple pen and notebook, and I am a happy camper.

“Much in the marketplace urges us toward safety, comfort, and luxury — they can be bought — but purpose and meaning are less commodifiable phenomena . . .”
— Rebecca Solnit, A Paradise Built in Hell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Joy Ride in a Paintbox

“Painting is a companion with whom one may hope to walk a great part of life’s journey.”
— Winston Churchill, Painting as Pastime

The current state of my work table — watercolors and brushes, a stack of books, and found objects from nature

” . . . painting is a friend who makes no undue demands, excites to no exhausting pursuits, keeps faithful pace even with feeble steps, and holds her canvas as a screen between us and the envious eyes of Time or the surly advance of Decrepitude.”
— Winston Churchill, Painting as Pastime

I enjoyed reading Winston Churchill’s Painting as Pastime, a short book, a single essay about the virtues of hobbies and especially painting.  Churchill took up painting in his 40s, and he encourages those of us in middle or advanced age to forget about lessons and simply have the audacity to pick up a paintbox and have a try:  ” . . . the first quality that is needed is Audacity.  There is no time for the deliberate approach.  Two years of drawing-lessons, three years of copying woodcuts, five years of plaster casts — these are for the young. . . We must not be too ambitious.  We may content ourselves with a joy ride in a paintbox.  And for this Audacity is the only ticket.”

Isn’t he great with words?  I will leave you with one more quote:  “Happy are the painters, for they shall not be lonely.  Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end, or almost to the end, of the day.”