Notebooks
Writng without the gaze of definition.
Recently I was gifted a notebook from a friend. In brief the note inside said, ‘Another to add to your collection.’ My friend Karla knows me well! I sure do have a collection of notebooks. There are even a few that date back to my teen years, cringeworthy reads full of angst and wistfully dreadful poetry. I have resolved to letting them become someone else’s problem when I’m no longer here to care what they find inside.
However, in saying that I have one book that I’ve filled slowly over the years with notes about milestone events and poetry, and messages to my children. I’ve included design ideas and doddles; and filled in pages with cards and invitations, tickets to events and pressed flowers. It is filled with random bits and pieces from the everyday that makes up a life. I hope that someone in my family will join the dots and recognise some of the quieter highlight of this life.
Also in this notepad I found a poem I’d written in 2009, about one of my children. To be honest I am not sure if it is specifically about any one of them, but rather it speaks to capturing a moment in time before it is gone. The passing of childhood and of memories. Hope you enjoy it.
Untitled
Flying, with hands extended
As if to catch the wind
it dances around you, and
I am breathless
watching
Too soon you will have grown
Beyond days in the garden
Will you look back, and
Remember the wind
With me
I also have so many notebooks, Jane. They are all kept at my family's guesthouse in Brazil and from time to time I wonder who should inherit them. I suspect it will be my goddaughter (daughter to my best friend) as my nephew is not too interested (which is fine!)
Have you heard of the stand-up night "Cringe"? It started in America and then crossed the Atlantic to the UK, about 15 years ago. I don't know if they're still going - people said they were hilarious. Members of the audience took turns reading out parts of their teen diaries.
A treasure!