I had forgotten that I had ordered some books - it's so easy to hop online, search for an item, and click PLACE ORDER, and then completely forget you did it. So today, when the box appeared on my doorstep, it was a happy surprise. My order was from Chronicle Books and it had something I need and something I really don't need. I need the journaling notebooks - above and below - because if I don't have a bunch of them stored up I feel worried and anxious. I love these notebooks for writing morning pages - they are an ideal size and the paper inside is perfect to write on - smooth and heavy. 
I've mentioned morning pages before - from the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Morning pages are a couple of pages of longhand writing (actually, I only write one page) that you do first thing in the morning. You write meanderings about the day ahead or the day past. You write whatever comes to mind. Morning pages are not supposed to sound especially smart or even positive. Cameron says, "You get on the page all the whiny stuff that gets between you and your creativity and accomplishments. Or you get on the page your gratitude or your plans or thoughts about what you need today. Morning pages get you to the other side of your fear or your moods or your putting things off."I don't write every morning - in fact I just finished filling up one of these notebooks, and I started it over a year ago. But it is a full notebook about the past year, and though I may never go back and read it, and I certainly don't hope that anyone else does, it's there if I need it and the process helped me along the way.
The other item I purchased is a book about living a simple life. LIKE I NEED ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE BOOKS. Hello. Actually, it was the very appealing cover that led me down the path to the purchase button. And I have to say, in browsing through the book for a minute this afternoon, that it looks really quite good. I'll report later.If you go to Chronicle Books you can just enter the titles in the search box and find the books. The notebooks are from Hammerpress so if you type in Hammerpress they'll come up.
