February quite wisely was only given 28 days and on presidential election years 29 days. It is truly the cruelest month of the year for sheer chaos in the weather. Out in southern NM the west winds are coming in roaring at 55 miles an hour, the dust obliterating the view of the magnificent Organ mountains east of Las Cruces. Here in Columbus, MS, though, all the teeth of winter are evident in these days that seem to end as soon as you get up in the morning and it's night again and your cold and every damned heater in the house is on and the electric bills are devastating...
I discovered (quite through sheer ignorance in my past) that Mississippi is colder in the winter than southern NM. But then, after all, it is almost 200 miles farther north than southern NM, as well. Sure it's practically at sea level here and that should abate the cold like we get in the high desert, where we're 3500 feet above sea level—IN THE VALLEYS. The Organ Mountains that I speak of pinnacle out at 9,000 feet above sea level.
Anyway, in February, winter hangs on, the wind blows, it rains, it's dreary and cloudy, there is no real spring and then it's summer!
Am I still in love with Mississippi? Yes, without reservation. But I can complain about the weather. I hold no one responsible, and I love the people even more than when I first arrived, not really even knowing how to act properly among all these true Southerners—hehehe I still use a Southern accent, which I got from my relatives in East Texas as a kid, but it's not a good fit for the accent here, which is usually downplayed and soft. The East Texas accent is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Ok...think Oklahoma. Even Eastern New Mexico, kind of.
Talking about the weather and the seasons reminds me that I've got four journals, one for each season up on Amazon. They're all available in either hardback or paperback. But I do have to admit, the hardbacks are actually things of glossy beauty and feel good in the hand:
Winter Journal
A Season to Conclude
Winter Journal a Season to Conclude
I think winter means different things to urban dwellers than it does to country dwellers—but also has convergent meanings for everyone. Perhaps though for Americans and our particularly overlapping holidays, fall and winter really stack the holidays, and many normal activities come to a stop or at least slow down to make room for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, whatever the religious observation is. But there is also Black Friday and shopping and year-end deals, and the promise of the new year with New Year's resolutions. You can write about that, draw pictures in this book, or just plain doodle.
Or you can also consider that Winter probably meant different things in the past, before the computer and electronic age, before cell phones and television, before cross-country Interstate highways, and certainly before automobiles and radios. Maybe you want to contemplate that, if you're old enough to remember a time before now. You might want to express that in this journal.
Winter is a time of contemplation, reflection, escape (from the frenzy of shopping) ...for me, that is. It is a season to conclude things and to plan for new things.
Finally, maybe Winter is a time to dream and sleep, and hibernate, and read and write.
But what is winter to you? This journal of lined pages for writing, blank pages for drawing, and graph dots for doodling can help you express yourself.
What better way to spend the quiet time when it's cold outside and windy and snowing and miserable than to pick up this journal and write and take note of things you usually don't have time to. This book is also an activity book. You can draw and doodle.
Or maybe you know someone who is the type who likes to play with words and pictures and to be creative. Give them this journal as a random act of kindness...a surprise.
Spring Journal
The Quickening
Spring...the Quickening
Quicken: verb
2. stimulate or become stimulated • with object "give or restore life."
3. archaic (of a woman) reach a stage in pregnancy when movements begin to show signs of life.
And so it is with Spring, itself. It is a quickening, a time for restoration, for the earth to show signs of life, for living things to bud.
You can almost feel it coming on suddenly toward the end of winter, a day breaks and the temperature rises slightly, and frozen ponds slowly begin to thaw, and you can hear water running up in the mountains as snow melts. The sun rises in a clear blue sky, and it's almost time to put away the coats and wear lighter jackets, then sweaters, and then shirt sleeves.
All that. Birds build nests, cats nap in the sun, we suddenly feel like taking a walk into downtown, rather than driving, we turn our clock ahead an hour and the sun sets later.
And of course, writers write, artists draw, and others doodle—at least in blank books like this one.
Is Spring a glad time of year for you? Is it a time of year when you want to start a new project?
And of course, there's Spring Cleaning when we throw open the doors and open the windows, and shake out the rugs, and gather up things to wash that we've been letting go, bringing freshness back into our homes, in a quickening of renewal.
If you don't write or draw or doodle but you know someone who does this blank book makes a great gift.
Summer Journal
Selfies and Places
Summer Journal
Roughly speaking 60 percent of the world's population is under 40 years old, and around half of this group is under 18 years old.
So let's face it, you're most likely in the younger category, and let's also admit that it's summer and you're not likely to write a single word in a journal like this; you're more likely to write words in the sand on some beach somewhere.
You're going to take selfies and some of you will keep walking backwards holding your camera on a selfie stick trying to get the best shot of yourself against the background, farther...farther...farther...
Until you fall off the cliff at the Grand Canyon, run smack dab into the rotating blades of an Indiana Jones-type plane, back into a crocodile infested swamp (or is it alligator?). The possibilities are endless for your demise as a result of taking nothing but selfies on your summer vacation, but hey! That's what Summer vacation is all about.
So, this glossy-cover hardcover (or paperback) journal is meant to be durable and way more useful than something to write in...geez! You can put it over your face when you're lying on the beach and you don't want to sunburn your nose. You can pretend you’re reading and hide behind its open covers and keep your eye on that hunk or hottie, and he or she will never know the difference, but beware of others holding up this same journal over their faces and looking at you!
Now, if you do intend to actually write in this journal (I would) during your travels, you can write on the lined pages, draw on the blank art pages, or doodle on the graph dot pages—and paste prints of your selfie pictures in here, too.
Autumn Journal
A Life in Review
A Life in Review...
Just as the leaves on the trees begin to look weary from a day's worth of ceaseless summer sun, just when you realize you don't need to mow the grass as often, just as the waning afternoon sunlight has more gold in it than usual, something inside of you might begin to feel contemplative. You've come this far in life—so far in life in fact that more of it is behind you than ahead—it might be time to review what you know, where you've been, how you got here, who you are. This is the autumn of the year, and nature turns golden. This might be the autumn of your life.
If you got here, now's the time to sit by the fire in a cozy room, with a hot apple cider, or Bailey's, and thumb through the lined pages of this Autumn Journal. What can you tell your loved ones? What can you tell yourself? Autumn is the time of harvest, of the full moon, of colder nights, of All Hallows Eve, Of Halloween, and Dia de los Muertos.
Yes, if you're a writer, an artist, or one who doodles, this is a good journal, a good book to make your own. Nothing's going to stop you from pasting old photographs inside and annotating those photos. It might be a good place to stuff old love letters, or jot down dates of your favorite days in your life and leave something for someone to pick up and read.
This is a good place for a life in review. "Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days..." "Mama, do you remember the time..." "Son, let me tell you what happened to you when you were too young to remember..."
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