For the last couple of months, I’ve been taking the last week of the month off from writing and it’s replenishing. I don’t even think about writing, so my mind has open space.

I’m still writing morning pages, even though I only fill one page, so I call it my morning ‘page’. I had to do away with the 3-page rule and do what felt right for me, but it’s taken years to find the right page. In June, I finally found what works.

In her book, “Writing Down the Bones”, Natalie Goldberg suggests using a cheap, spiral bound notebook, like we used to buy the kids for school, so I tried that and it worked well. The problem was the notebook only had 70 pages, so I would need a new one bi-monthly and would have a stack of 6 in one year. Natalie mentions having a 5 ft. stack of notebooks from her writing practice, but I couldn’t imagine living with that.

One day, while out shopping, I came across a top-bound, spiral notebook that was pretty and on sale. I brought it home and thoroughly enjoyed using it. It has a sturdy front and back cover which made it perfect to curl up in a chair to jot reflections from the day. It became a note taker instead of a daily journal and I leave it laying out in plain sight so it’s easily accessible to capture any inspiring thoughts that may arise.

Sometimes I think we make life harder than it needs to be. I was completely overthinking what you use for my daily morning page until I read an article somewhere that suggested to choose what get’s you excited to use. Something that you’ll gravitate toward and actually look forward to using in the morning.

When we know what we love. I knew I loved the notebook pictured above, so I went in search of one similar. First, I looked up the company that made it, but I guess they’ve gone out of business which would explain why it was marked down to half price. Next, I took a photo of it in Google search and it pulled up similarly designed notebooks, so it wasn’t surprising to see one that I loved for sale at Target.

And just like the article suggested, I do look forward to using it each morning and haven’t missed a morning since the first week of June. When we know the things that add meaning to our lives follow the path that leads you there, but be forewarned…it doesn’t happen quickly. The road is long, but reaching a destination that’s rewarding is waiting for us to go the extra mile.