It caught my eye in the local newsagent - the beautiful soft leather diary 2022 stamped in gold across the top.
It is one of my many quirks that I really love new diaries, stationary and all things that give me a sense of order and promise in life. What could be better than a whole new year ahead to plan, and schedule and pretend that you have your shit together . After the last twenty months or so of lockdowns, open ups, cancelled plans and holidays and a lack of direction, this magical new diary would give me some hope. I did actually pay a ridiculous amount of money for it, I usually get a cheap reject shop diary for work / life planning.
This time thou I felt 2022 needed expensive leather and gold.
The photo does not do the softness of the cover justice and how pretty it is in side. It has all the columns and bits that I love in a diary :)
I have such a sensory love affair with diaries, purses, handbags, even furniture - they have to feel right .
As I ran my hand over the cover I just knew it was what I needed.
Buying a diary means a lot of other things too. Update passwords, clean out old contacts, compile all those scribbled notes and email addresses into an organised system.
Notes and plans of what I want to do or what I intend to do are all colour coded and noted in my shiny new diary. I write with such care as a spelling mistake or smudge would literally tip me over the edge. However come April I'm usually unravelling and those scribbled notes and numbers start to appear . By September there's no order just frantic notes and dot form bullets as I try to remember things.
Lockdown has definitely changed this years diary - crossed out and rescheduled appointments , zoom meetings and pass codes, endless days where there is actually nothing wrote in the pages, except the occasional scribble or random number that has no meaning or presence in the stillness of this lockdown life.
I am intending to fill my nice soft diary with a get away holiday, marking out the days off with colour coded delight. I have started researching get away retreats. The irony is I look for peaceful healthy retreats, all the things I COULD have created at home in lockdown :) but I want pampering and indulgence . I also want to fill the pages with catch ups with friends, weekend get aways, again all colour coded into place. At work I want to schedule in grand plans, fun events, business planning days - work is of course another colour, my work / life colour balance Diaries are indeed a work of art.
But first I have to get to the end of the tattered old red reject shop diary. I have learnt not to schedule to far ahead, not to plan events and just to hang on and adapt to change as it happens. It is always interesting to look back when diary cleaning - despite the crazy year I actually got more done than anticipated .I noted all the green pen slashes and red ticks showing that I had worked through some to do lists. However the empty pages of lockdown days are a reminder how quickly I adapted to never planning to far ahead. Maybe I should have taken the time to schedule in some good things , different things, like gardening plans, choosing a new recipe to cook, a home facial, learning something new, a walk somewhere different . All those empty days and pages.
So as my nice new diary waits for the year ahead to arrive, I shall leave the pages blank till I start my new years eve ritual and plan for hope, but from lessons learnt I shall also schedule in the simple things , the things that get us by when the days stay still .
I just have to choose a colour for that - oh and a sticker . Did I mention that little obsession !
.May you find the perfect diary - and may your days be full of stuff to do or even nothing at all :)
xx Jan
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