It’s two-thirds of the way through the year, which means it’s time for another calendar drawings roundup. Here’s my spreads from where I left off in April through where I am now in August:
And because I got some questions about it last time, here are the ink colors I was using for each month:
April - Monteverde “California Teal”
May - Birmingham Pen Co. “Chrysanthemum”
June - Lennon ToolBar “Sunset Glow”
July - Lennon ToolBar “Blue Sky”
August - Sailor Shikiori “Tokiwa-matsu”
I’ve managed to keep up with these spreads in my JIYU Monthly. But as for my other journals, in the interests of honesty, I must report that I have not caught up in my Hobonichi 5-year at all. The missing chunk of two weeks has turned into a chasm of two blank months. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this is that I have no desire to try to go back and fill this gap in. If you’ve followed my journaling essays here for a while, you know that this is highly unusual for me. Every day, I glance at my unopened 5-year, half-expecting that the sight will scandalize the archivist in me into returning with a vengeance. And hey, if that happens, I’ll be pleased to find my “backup” journals are available to reconstruct a fair copy of how I spent my days.
For now, the little book stays closed, and the desire to document memories in that particular notebook remains very quiet in me. I am simply enjoying life too much. Not that my journaling habit indicates a lack of enjoyment, of course. Maybe I’m just realizing, or rediscovering, that the ways in which I slow down and savor life doesn’t always have to happen on paper. “Missed Time” by Ha Jin, I feel, captures the feeling well:
My notebook has remained blank for months
thanks to the light you shower
around me. I have no use
for my pen, which lies
languorously without grief.
Nothing is better than to live
a storyless life that needs
no writing for meaning—
when I am gone, let others say
they lost a happy man,
though no one can tell how happy I was.
___
Text and photos by: A.C. Esguerra
Where to find A.C. : instagram @blueludebar
Read other stories by A.C. : Here
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