Notes:

I noticed something last year when I collected thirty-seven years worth of journals. First of all I was shocked that I've journaled since I was fifteen.  I actually burned the diaries from my teenage years.  That decade was documented in battered, spiral bound notebooks which were quite ordinary to the point of being painful.  They weren't good "memoir" material and I couldn't keep carrying all that baggage!

Me at around 11 1/2 at St. Michael's Catholic School in West St. Paul, MN

In this very examined life I've noticed a few tendencies.  I'm incredibly consistent, goal oriented and passionate about the people I love and the things I do.  (I didn't realize how consistent until I looked at five crates of handwritten diaries!)  I haven't always appreciated my life and it's taken me three and a half decades to realize that there is no benefit in beating myself up over imagined failures.  I'm actually very successful and I'm good at pretty much anything I put my mind to.  My life is rich and complex, simple and delicious.  I have no regrets and don't plan on having any!  One of my new goals is to spend the next fifty years celebrating my successes.  I'm sure my tomorrow self will do some phenomenal things and she'll appreciate the ease and joy I bring to my life now.

At this point I'll loop back and imagine my eleven and a half year old self looking into the future.  She thinks she has to do big, important things.  Now I know that it's the little things that become the big ones.  Perfection is just one mistake away.  (That can be a bit of a nemesis but my present day self knows that nothing is ever perfect! Nor would I want it to be.) She can be messy on occasion but is good at creating beauty.  She realizes that mistakes mean she's doing something. She reads and writes, draws, paints, runs barefoot on the beach.  Hmmm, she's looking very familiar.  I think she also likes iceskating and snow forts.  She's certainly managed to be true to herself!

I've underestimated the power of a lifetime of following through on a compulsion to create.  I often slow down to write in my journals.

One of my students in a Studio Channel
Islands Journaling workshop in 2012

As a teacher and artist I'm ready to share some of this with other people.  I have developed a course in Art Journaling that incorporates creative writing, multi-sensory prompts and mixed media art techniques to help you start your own journaling practice.

My next workshop is April 20 from 9 AM- 4PM at Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo, CA.  There are multiple hotels in walking distance from the Studios and we're three blocks from the Amtrak station so it's easy to get here and there are great places to visit while you're here.  I'm also in the process of booking an East Coast venue in Raleigh/ Durham North Carolina.  The full day intensive workshop will include materials, a continental breakfast and lunch.  I'll update my web registrations this weekend and you can register online or contact me directly at mgking@mac.com.  Pricing is $195.

Wow, I've graduated from mangled spiral notebooks written to the background of American Pie to teaching my very own class.  Cool.

Now go back and read this while you listen to:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMlzfpwJZuc
Good God I love that song!  It was the theme song for the spiral bound notebooks.