The "Why" has changed

Have you ever had those moments where something triggers you to become very clear on something you are doing, or an area of your life? I had one of those moments last night.

I was out for dinner with girlfriends last night at The Sidedoor (an aside: you need to try this restaurant if you live in the Ottawa area). We were discussing scrapbooking, as usual, and we got to talking about styles and the whys of what we scrapbook. I came into scrapbooking by way of mixed media. First, by artjournaling my life without pictures, to canvases, again without pictures, and then into scrapbooking. But when I started scrapbooking, my "why" wasn't about the story, or even the photos. It was about doing something with gorgeous product lines. I would search for pictures that looked good with a particular paper line, and not even consider the story behind the picture. I also wouldn't scrapbook what I considered "bad pictures" of me. Now things have changed, and I really feel that it's because of my role with Scrapbooking from the Inside Out.

So now, I'm pulling pictures out of my stash that may be years and years old, but I want to tell the story. I don't care that I don't have makeup on. I don't care that there are dark shadows. These are the pictures that I have of the event, the pictures that tell the story. And now, I'm happy to say, a lot of my layouts are about the story. Which is what makes working with SFTIO's kits so much fun. Because they challenge me to think about a particular theme. This month's theme kit is "Respect".

This trip that I decided to scrapbook taught me a lot of respect. Respect of nature. Respect of time limitations. Respect of my own body and what it could and couldn't do. And I'm so glad that I took the time to scrapbook these now.

The other thing that has really changed for me is that I journal in my own handwriting most of the time now. It's not pretty. But it's mine. And if anyone else reads my journaling, from my family to my friends, they will know what my handwriting looked like. And I was never comfortable with my writing. But I'm okay with it now. It's authentically me.

I hope you'll drop by the forums at SFTIO to challenge yourself in the near future. It's a lot of fun, believe me!