Ahh, journaling! The blank pages await as I prepare to write.  I put on my fuzzy slippers, fill my tall water bottle with delicious frosty water, grab my favorite snuggly blanket to wrap around me to keep warm, and turn on my adorable "bunny light", (a ceramic bunny with pink floral lamp shade). I sit in my comfy recliner, take up my pen, and greet the page.  Hello, paper!  Hello, nothingness!  Let me fill you up, I say, as I begin to record my ponderings.

     Pnderings need not make sense.  They need not be profound.  They just need to be honest, authentic, and from the heart. Whatever's on my mind at the time. Part of me.  Even if they only say things like "I wish I could crawl back into bed." "I really don't want to go to work today." "I don't think I face traffic today." Or, "my back hurts too much to go to work." "Can you believe it's raining again?" "What was I thinking yesterday, wearing those shoes?  They killed my feet!"

     But other mornings might bring "Would you look at that snow...it makes me smile!" Or, "That little girl made my day yesterday when she gave me her drawing with hearts on it.  I'm going to put it on my fridge." "I think I'll start my new canvas today" Or, "That does it...I am going to submit a piece to Somerset Studio magazine this month! Maybe I'll get published again!"

     So, nothing necessarily profound, just whatever comes to mind.  Putting thoughts onto paper gets them out of my head and onto the page, where I can see them and do something with them. If they're negative or not-too-helpful thoughts, getting them out of my head leaves room for helpful thoughts.  It frees up my mind for possibilities. That's what happened the two times I last submitted canvases to Somerset Studio...I was published...TWICE! That's what happened when I decided to actually WRITE the book that was bumbling around in my head. Now it's ready to submit to an agent, for possible publication!

     Ponderings.  Things that might not be important.  Things that end up being important.  Either way, words from my head that end up on the page.  Words...perhaps not all profound or life shattering, but important, nevertheless.