Journals, blossoms, and commonplace notes about civics

Trying to not eat my emotions

They say March comes in like the lion, but I doubt with the political climate today, it’s not going to go out like a lamb. These days I’m stirring with rage and couldn’t sit still. Most of the time I pout and stew, but in between those moments, I manage to grasp onto slivers of things to enjoy and take pleasure in, like looking at early blossoms and squeezing in some time to write.

Journaling to keep me sane

On the bright side, my daily journals are all caught up! It’s been really hard to write about current events because things are moving so fast and we’re constantly bombarded by atrocities. In my limited space within the Take a Note Planner, what ended up staying on the page were just doodles of my meals and little tidbits that made me happy. I tipped in postcards sent in by friends, as well as stickers that I refuse to hoard. They say joy is part of resistance, and putting down stickers still brings me a lot of joy.

These trees will soon be filled with pink cherry blossoms!

I moved into a new TRAVELER’S notebook refill: the special ROAD TRIP edition with kraft paper and gold foil stamping on the cover. This is all part of the “use what I love” self-care routine regarding stationery. No more “saving the good stuff for the perfect occasion.” This angry girl NEEDS the therapy of a good notebook RIGHT NOW.

My spreads are nothing special these days. It might even remind people of a scrapbook as I fill up each page with photos of things I love. When I retroactively write a few sentences about my dog or a nice outing, it feels like I’m practicing gratitude, a much-needed antidote to anxiety. The kraft paper makes my pages feel rustic and dated as if I’m carving down a moment of history on brown parchment paper. I think my long rants about politics and human decency wouldn’t look that out of place in this refill too…something to think about.

The workhorse pen for this refill is surprisingly not a fountain pen or anything too extra— just a normal Sarasa R gel pen. This year, I’m revisiting all the gel pens I’ve neglected. There’s something oddly therapeutic about the simple combination of just plain paper and a black pen, and this simplicity gave me permission to write at any moment.

Stopping to smell the flowers

Who’s ready for cherry blossom season, raise your hands!

When I moved to Seattle, Washington, I was pleasantly surprised at the change of tapestry across the city during the spring season. I learned that Seattle was gifted over 1000 cherry trees from Japan as a symbol of friendship. Seattle is a fairly new city compared to others in the United States, and I loved that it had received such a pretty decoration as a foundation before it started to grow. These cherry blossoms-filled trees lined iconic destinations like The Quad at the University of Washington, but also pop up here and there in discreet neighborhood streets.

Alongside cherry blossoms are also the plum blossoms, rhododendrons, and more! I made it an adventure each year to start scouting out new patches of cherry blossoms to visit around the city. This year, I’m armed with a digital map I discovered on the internet that I’ll use to navigate to new spots.

And then there are a few of my favorite haunts where I enjoy spending an afternoon sketching, almost like a yearly ritual. Despite the rainy forecast throughout the rest of March, I hope I can share some of those experiences with you soon.

Meanwhile, my scouting begins this week as I find excuses to walk by a few trees closer to my neighborhood. A walk with my dog is the perfect excuse. I keep trying to pick up loose flowers from the ground and garnish them on Cookie for a photo, but he’s impatient with this kind of nonsense. I finally stopped attempting when a bug crawled from one of the flowers onto my hand. Not today, bug.

This is also the first year I have slowed down to admire these flowers before they are in full bloom. Seeing the buds gather on its short stem, waiting to burst with potential while riding out drizzles and the cold weather reminded me of the word “resilience” and “soft but strong”.

I think it’s a sentiment that is felt by a lot of us these days, and I am hopeful that they will all mature into stunning blooms.

Learning civics and taking notes

I’m doing a lot of reading and learning these days as I deep dive into subjects and debates that I came across on social media. Turns out, the more I learn, the more angry and frustrated I become. I had to take out this negative energy somewhere, so I decided to repurpose my Hobonichi notebook (with the good ole Tomoe River paper before it went bad) into a commonplace notebook to record my learnings.

This turned into pages of notes from Substack posts I’ve been reading, a little bit of civics, and frustration temporarily tempered by the satisfying feeling of ink flowing from the pen onto paper.

After all, I don’t want to mindlessly doomscroll and move on to the next loud subject that comes my way. They say that writing things down helps solidify the knowledge more in your brain (or by explaining it to other people). I’m also giving my currently inked pens (13 of them) a workout so I can ink them up with new colors soon. Win-win.

Anyway, this is a quick update from me. Did you stop to smell the flowers this week?