There’s a pandemic out there, and my journal is full
Some were counting rolls of toilet paper. I was counting down pages till my notebook was full.
The day before Tax Day I ran out of paper in my red, Moleskin journal. I’d known this day was coming. But it was mid-March, and I thought the stores would re-open soon, and I could pick up a new notebook. By April Fool’s day, I began having my doubts. Each day as I wrote, my fingers sensed the firm approach of the back cover.
While others were counting out squares of toilet paper, and corralling boxes of tissues in case they had to repurpose them, I was contemplating what I’d do when I filled the final page of my journal.
Ordering a new one online was not an option. For me buying a journal is a ritual, not an efficient mouse-click-to-shopping-cart-to-doorstep procedure. It means a trip down Main Street browsing one bookstore then the other, and then crossing over to the card shop, and the discount store where sometimes you could find (but usually didn’t) the perfect notebook, and back again.
I liked to pick up each blank book, run my fingers over the cover and the inside pages. I needed to check if it had a ribbon to mark the pages. Were the lines narrow enough to keep my handwriting in check? Ideally, it would have a paper pocket glued inside the back cover, where I could tuck snippets of dreams scrawled on scraps of paper in my hazy early morning handwriting.
Over the years I’ve had two or three journals that checked nearly all of the boxes. But I never met a journal that checked them all. As with any quest, the allure of finding something better kept me going. Until I couldn’t anymore.
Every store downtown was closed on April 14, the day I transcribed into my journal an email I’d sent a colleague, in which I described my first Zoom class with a group of low-income women in a free college program where I teach writing.
“Despite everything they are up against, these women carry on with their education. I only wish our institutions and government cared for them even a fraction of the amount that my students are caring for their families and one another and the people they serve in their work as CNAs, maintenance staff, and personal care assistants …”
I knew how small my dilemma was in the face of all that was going on. I also knew that worldwide, I was in the company of countless journal keepers who were also writing toward the ends of their notebooks, and wondering what to do next.
℘
What I did next was to dig into a box of gifts I collect throughout the year for when I forget a birthday, or someone unexpectedly brings me a present during the holidays and I (for the moment, anyway) I have nothing to give in return. There I found, still in its cellophane sleeve, a soft-backed notebook whose cover was embroidered with blue and yellow flowers. On April 15, when I didn’t need to file my taxes due to the pandemic, I pulled it out and wrote:
“I bought this notebook in January, intending to bring it with me to the writing retreat in Culebra. But it was too pretty, so I packed my red notebook instead. And now, two and a half months later, the red notebook is full and the page has turned—in the very broadest sense. The world is revealed as something different than I thought it was. More likely it is revealed as what it was all along. Fragile. Unendingly complicated. And most of all, uncertain.”
℘
Three and a half months later, in the middle of August, I hit the back cover in that journal, too. This time, with a rambling dream about death, which took me careening to the last page.
Stores had re-opened downtown with new rules for mask-wearing, hand-sanitizing, and strict capacity limits. But I was only going inside when I had a clear, quick purpose—and shopping for journals didn’t qualify.
As it turns out, the program director for the writing course I teach had recently dropped off some materials for me to review for possible purchase for our new students. Among them was a hardbacked journal with writing prompts based on Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming. Entire pages were pre-filled with quotes in massive fonts proclaiming things like, “You don’t really know how attached you are until you move away …” and “Am I good enough? Yes, I am!”
“Let’s order the memoir for the students and skip the journals,” I’d texted her. I figured I’d give my copy to a friend’s teenage daughter the next time I saw her in person, whenever that would be.
But now, I was once again desperate, and getting used to making do. On August 27, I picked up that blank book and began to fill it:
“There’s a pandemic out there and I’m not about to go inside and shop for a journal. And although I told P. that this one is too fluffy for our students, well—there’s a pandemic out there. And in the spirit of imperfection, I’ll begin again.”
I’m a little more than halfway through that journal now. And I’m not sure what’s next.
Tzivia Gover is an author who leads workshops on dreams, writing, and mindfulness. Her upcoming workshop, The Art of Keeping a Notebook takes place online, Saturday, Feb. 27 with Writers in Progress. Register HERE.
Tzivia, reading this entry on the pursuit of the perfect journal, made me think about how I treasure my journals more now than ever. There was a time when I was frugal and only bought the bargains. Still, the cover had to speak to me, and the paper as well. The idea of a holding ribbon to mark the next page is a very good one! I didn’t realize how important until recently. Post its just don’t hold the same energy.
Thank you for reminding me of why our journals are important. They hold pieces of ourselves. Treasures.
Hi Nancy,
Thank you for your comment. Our journals are indeed treasures! Happy writing!
Tzivia
I am moving slowly through a purple journal I love. It’s good to start the day with your written voice.
Ah, purple! Maybe I’ll try that for my next one 🙂
Tzivia…I loved reading this piece—-so honest, engaging and relatable. So glad it arrived in my inbox.
I invite you to visit my blog page at my website, listed below.
Hi Stephanie,
It’s so nice to hear from you. Thank you for your comment.
Happy blogging! (I’ll check it out.)
Dear Tzivia, for many years I kept a journal–for writing poems, for dreams, for notes while leading workshops, for whatever was happening in my life–my children, my partner (if any), the land where I lived, our writing retreat adventures–and I benefited from the act of writing by hand whatever came. But somewhere along the way, my handwriting became too hard to read–aging can do this, I guess–and I began writing entirely on my laptop. No doubt, that changed what I wrote; but I have made do this way for about 10 years. Still, I miss the feel of real pages, the press of a pen, the way the smell of the paper changes over time. So, thank you for this beautiful homage to a physical journal and to the careful ritual of seeking and finding what you need.
Hi Patricia,
I know what you mean about handwriting! Mine has never been good. (In elementary school we were graded on it, and that was my only low mark!) I now keep a big rectangular eraser in my hand at all times when writing. I do use ink in my journal, but I don’t mind making a mess there … and my journals ARE messy! <3
Thank you for your lovely writing on uncertainty and making do. I have been making do with my journaling in a different way. In my recent cleaning out/organizaing my space project I found MANY journals/notebooks that were only partially written in. I never made it to the last page. So I have been making my way through the stack; the last year of writing is parceled out in the latter pages of these different notebooks. I’m enjoying the juxtapositions of different time periods in the same book.
It is so nice to hear from you, Laurel! And what a clever idea this is. I love your commentary on the juxtapositions, too!