Love for Analogue Stories » Trina O'Gorman

What kinds of gifts are on your holiday shopping lists this year? Did you brave the crowds and venture out for Black Friday? I remember when Black Friday was the...

I don’t know whose idea it was to venture out onto the cliffs of Howth the day after Sean died. It certainly wasn’t mine; heights terrify me. But there we...

I cannot vividly remember the house on North Maple Avenue in East Orange, NJ. We moved from there when I was nine years old, to Summit Avenue in Maplewood, NJ,...

People have often asked me how I decide what to write, day after day. I’ve been journaling since I was a little girl of around nine years old. Some years,...

When my psychologist referred to my life experiences as traumas and my responses to those traumas as a complex post-traumatic stress disorder, maybe I should have felt relieved that it...

My life is absolutely amazing, but I cannot sugarcoat it. My life has been challenging. In fact, last summer tested everything that I knew about dealing with stress and coping...

I try to keep “stuff” to a minimal in our home, though I am, admittedly, a work in progress. I recently opened a few of our drawers and closets, to...

Constructing an Empowering Narrative: Moving Beyond Complaining and Blaming One of the most common regrets that people have at the end of life and at the end of relationships is...

In a recent Instagram post in which I asked my followers if they had any questions about personal writing, one person posed an interesting and provocative question, How do you...

I’m not sure what my life would be like if I did not keep a notebook and write almost daily. Personal writing is my superpower. It is how I process...

I was too tall. My skin was too dark. Even people of color, like myself, told me so. My nose was too big, and my lips were not quite full...

About a week ago, my beloved notebook accidentally found its way into the washing machine. Well, it didn’t find its way there. I accidentally tossed it in with the laundry,...

To say that 2018 has not, thus far, gone as I’d planned would be an understatement. I could not have imagined the course my life would take as a mother...

It has been a month since I last sat down to reflect on my analogue life and life in general for Baum-kuchen. In that time, I have worked daily on...

Oh my goodness. I woke up this morning and felt a crispness in the air that reminded me that it is almost autumn once again. The season of back-to-school and...

I am still in the throes of grieving, a place or space that is sometimes bad, but certainly not all bad. There have been, as I wrote last month, many...

I have learned, in the hours, days, and weeks after the death of my ex-husband and father of my two sons, that grief is a strange, strange thing, and not...

My mother taught me to be careful so I wouldn’t get hurt. She taught me to always call to let her know I’d reached my destination safely because anything could...

Expressive writing, writing about our feelings, can be very beneficial to our well-being. Studies have confirmed this and there is a plethora of anecdotal evidence out there to support its...

As a college writing professor, I have seen many young writers struggling to find their own voice. Voice, in academic writing, depends on the audience, authority, and the mood one...

If you’ve read any of my work or visited my website or Instagram feed, then it is likely that you associate me with journaling, personal writing, and Traveler’s Company traveler’s...

As I sat down to organize my notebook for 2018, and in the process say goodbye to 2017 and hello to 2018, I began to review the year I’ve just...

Fourteen years ago, I purchased this kit called a Circle Journey Correspondence Kit from a bookstore. It contained a blank book, ten envelopes, stickers, photo corners, and a few other...

In 2014, my sons and I started a Traveling Traveler’s Notebook with simple grid-ruled traveler’s notebook refill. We decided we would send our notebook to various “hosts” in different places...

The very moment I open my eyes each morning, my thoughts start to flood into consciousness, each one competing for my awareness and my attention, like needy children. As soon...

Many people feel that the cooler weather and shorter days are something we must suffer through, or at the very least tolerate and endure, while we await the warmth of...

I spent most of my childhood in the suburbs of Maplewood, New Jersey, where on school days, some kids still walked home for lunch to nicely painted colonial homes with...

Honestly, I don’t know how they do it. And by “they” I mean people who don’t keep notebooks. People who don’t write down their thoughts at all. How do they...

About two weeks ago, maybe even longer, I pulled about five storage bins out of the crawl space and into my bedroom. I opened them to look for the size...

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.’  Albert Camus I’d be surprised to discover that the feeling is not universal or...

It breathes. Well, it doesn’t literally breathe, as we do, taking air into our lungs, inhaling and exhaling. But it breathes, in that it is alive, pulsating with the beat...

Much of what I’ve learned from life, I’ve learned from stumbling around in it -- mostly making mistakes, but sometimes getting things right. The rest of what I’ve learned, I’ve...

I have circled back to this piece, which is about the power of expressive writing, with new thoughts swirling around in my head. Friday, January 27, 2017 was International Holocaust Remembrance Day,...

  Joan Didion, who would now be in her 80s, is a good friend of mine. Of course, she doesn’t know this. In fact, I’ve never even met her, but...

-- It takes us 39 minutes to get from our Montclair, New Jersey train station to Penn Station in New York City. We are, literally, at the doorstep of one...

“We’re all stories in the end. Make it a good one, eh? Doctor Who  (Thanks to Laura on Instagram for sharing this insight with me.)I’ve long since come to the...

If you’ve followed my notebooks for any length of time on Instagram, my website, or Baum-kuchen’s love letter, you have undoubtedly seen my beloved index cards. In the era of...

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine    When my husband of 16, almost 17 years, suddenly left our...

You Were Once a Philosopher When is the last time you posed a complex question to a child - the type of question that might lead on to conclude some...

 

 

 

“...I think we are well-advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise, they turn up unannounced...