19 November 2014

the jar of magical thinking

jar o magic

magic bit #1

magic bit #5

magic bit #4

magic bit #3

magic bit #6

magic bit #2

magic bit #7

the jar of magical thinking

this is the jar of magical thinking. aka, the jar that sits on the blue wooden table and holds scraps of paper with ava's and ezra's words scrawled on them. aka, words I want to remember.

I first read about the jar of magical thinking back in 2008 and besides the fact that it was originally inspired by joan didion, here's what I love about it: it's an old spaghetti sauce jar, that's it. and the papers used are whatever is available, whatever is currently within reach-- backs of envelopes, leftover notebook paper, index cards, bits of paper bags, old receipts, anything.

this means I never hesitate to scribble words down, never. I never wonder if the paper is pretty enough or my handwriting is pretty enough. this means the whole thing is so simple it's nearly impossible to screw up. and you know what? six years later and I'm still doing it. I'm still stuffing that little jar full of magic bits. I'll stuff it till I can't stuff it anymore, till there are so many scraps of paper in that old jar it practically hums and hovers from all the magical thinking.

I never finished the baby books, probably never will. and I'm a thousand years behind with all the photo albums, but this. this I can do. and will continue to do until I can't anymore. or until they run out of magical thinkings, which I hope is never.

11 comments:

  1. Oh how I love this! That simple jar makes my heart burst, so much magic and joy to share.

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  2. You don't know how much I needed to hear about something as amazing as this right now.

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  3. Fabulous. This is a magic jar full of wonder and rainbows (I am so happy I know what they taste like now!). Clare x

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  4. This totally choked me up...oh, love...

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  5. I'd totally forgotten you were blogging everyday - what a treat to catch up with your posts!
    Your jar is wonderful. I used to do this jar magic when the boys were younger, somehow it stopped happening, but the gems within the jar are well loved.
    x.

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  6. That is truly beautiful :)

    I also had to let go of the expectation of finishing Baby books, Photo albums too ;(

    I did have our children write for a few years in a gratitude diary, inspired by Oprah, and I also did manage (just) to keep up with their little school books, a brief and concise image of them each year as they grew and moved on in their lives :)

    Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, cheers, T. :)

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  7. Oh my goodness this is so beautiful, it's a zillion times the coolness of a journal. <3 I love it.

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  8. I love that you have this jar. For my 40th birthday I asked my friends to write down (on anything they could find) something that made them happy. So I have a jar of happy. And I add to it, and ask friends to add to it, and I pull things out like a lucky dip whenever things get rough.

    x

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  9. That is a fabulous idea, and it warmed me from the inside to be reading those little quotes! <3

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