Keeping a Book of Centuries - One Hundred Days

April 21, 2021 Day 64

4/21/2021

Snow in April can feel a little off kilter! I had a couple of days this week where missing one part of my daily routine meant missing another part...and so on. How about you? The beautiful irony is my Book of Firsts, wherein I did eventulally manage to record the offending precipitation, let me know that it snowed the same day last year. "Always we begin again!" My notebooks keep me keeping!

April 14, 2021 Day 57

4/14/2021

Does keeping one notebook lead to keeping others? What to do with all this glory - Book of Firsts, Nature Notebook, Poetry Notebook??? One hundred days with just one makes me familiar with all that is particular to it but also stirs a longing to explore the character of the others. How about you?

April 7, 2021 Day 50

4/7/2021

Halfway! Is your keeping practice helping you to live from your Center? Can you feel yourself returning? Some things are so fleeting - one minute a catkin, the next a leaf! I have been thinking about what attending to "the things written in the world around us" requires. What a feat of will it is to look and then take up a pencil....each time! Let's celebrate all successes on the way to becoming noticers.

March 31, 2021 Day 43

3/31/2021

Wednesday of Holy Week: a good week to remember that in times of darkness and confusion especially, keeping can help us recall our experiences of wisdom, love and guidance. Psychologist, Dr. Elaine Aron, urges "writing down all such experiences, so that their sheer number begins to carry some weight. Otherwise, they are buried by the mundane, derided by the inner skeptic, left orphaned by the lack of 'logical explanations.'" Often we find a pattern emerges - we see something we hadn't known before.

March 24, 2021 Day 36

3/24/2021

How goes the discipline of discovery? We're one third in!

St. Patrick's Day 2021 Day 29

3/17/2021

The fourth week of Lent already! Can you remember what you were thinking about the fourth week of Lent last year? How about the fourth week of Lent five years ago? Me neither. That's one of my reasons for keeping; I forget stuff. In 2017 I kept a journal on "small" for 100 days. Today, I looked up day 29 and was reminded of something I wanted to keep hold of: small, daily things need attention. Today have a look back...to last year, or even the past few weeks. What are you noticing?

March 10, 2021 Day 22

3/10/2021

How's it all going? After three weeks is the keeping feeling more like a habit? There is a reason Charlotte Mason says "habit is ten natures" but she also acknowledges the initial work involved - a habit must "be formed definitely and thoughtfully." Do you feel your habit of attention growing? Is there anything about the bits and pieces surprising you this week? Even when we miss a day, let's be like the Benedictines who say, "always we begin again" and keep on keeping!

March 3, 2021 Day 15

3/3/2021

I bought myself this Lenten Rose. It's a perennial and I hope once the ground thaws, I'll be able to plant it outside, to keep time, blooming each Lent, reminding me to "return." I'm in good company. This morning's reading was of Jeremiah who visits a pottery and tells us that as he looked at the pots, "the word of the Lord came to me." What kinds of things are you looking at and hearing during these one hundred days of keeping? I know the chance of successfully transplanting this lovely is fairly slim, but that's just why I have to try (and why I persist in keeping); beauty and meaning are often fleeting, I want to muster all the attention I can.

February 24, 2021

2/24/2021

That's week one already! How's your keeping going? Have you established a time of day to help form your habit? Wednesdays are for standing outside of ourselves and considering the notebook process. You might even jot a few observations each week. What has your notebook been inviting you into, comfortable or uncomfortable?
It's never too late to join. See the original invitation here.

February 17, 2021 ASH WEDNESDAY

2/17/2021

"And now, cried Max, let the wild (paper) rumpus start!" Today begins our annual CM community challenge: One Hundred Days of Keeping - year five. Do you know where your notebook is ?