pay me in elephants and gratitude.

i am taking another break from the joys of textual analysis. i need to do something more creative to keep my brain from turning into mush from overuse :P

but, before the title confuses you too much, dear readers...

i drew an elephant in my gratitude journal. ta-da! and i've been meaning to post about my gratitude journal for like the past week. ooops.

isn't she cute? she's my elephant necklace, Walter's, wife!

anyways, i was proud of myself. but drawing her led me to drawing a giraffe, and then drawing a visual representation for every "i am grateful" statement in my journal. luckily, i haven't been using this one for long, otherwise that could have been an hours long affair.

"He was the visual equivalent of a Sunday morning..." - The Nature of Jade, by Deb Caletti

my elephant, my giraffe, and another Nature of Jade quote: "If is a beautiful word. If is the key to any locked door."

more recent entries, along with the doodles from today :3

THAT is my latest gratitude journal. i got it from my mom (who got it from our friends who i still need to make that baby blanket for... oops!) for my birthday, and have been writing at least five things i'm grateful for every day since.

i've had a gratitude journal off and on ever since i learned how to write. but i somehow manage to never keep one when i really need to - where i'm going through patches where i'm morbid and going through self-imposed solitary confinement and i'm brooding and refusing to communicate.

which is probably why i started this one when i did.

i knew as soon as i opened that present what this notebook would be. it has a picture of one of my favorite places in the world on my favorite day to be there - the winter solstice. and i always feel so much better and so -haha- grateful after i've been there. so it only makes sense that it would become my gratitude journal.

some days i will sit down with a cup of tea and some soft music and take my time, coming up with some deep things that i'm grateful for. that happens a lot when i've had a bad day and i actually have to think to come up with something to be grateful for. how sad is that? actually having to THINK to write something down that i'm grateful for. it should take me, like, thirty seconds to write fifteen things.

and sometimes it does. on the days where i'm happy-go-lucky and feeling good about life but want to go to bed as soon as i can, i can write five things i'm grateful for that day in the blink of an eye. sometimes they're petty, like "i'm grateful for caffeine" {well i AM!} and sometimes they're the deepest thought i have ever had. either way. little things like caffeine or someone calling me pretty or a friend reacting to something i tell them the way i want to can make my day, so why not write them down?

HappyRissa equation: coffee/tea=writing. writing=love. love=happyrissa. therefore, coffee/tea=happyrissa :P

please ignore the horrible manicure. i plan on fixing that asap.

one of my favorite books. i love jade. i love bo. i love the elephants. ILOVESEBASTIAN.

cartoon depiction of what kenzie told me she'd do if she wanted me to. aka kenzie kicking he-who-will-not-be-named's butt.

and some days, some days i'm so filled with gratitude and want to spill my heart out that i write ten, fifteen, twenty things down. those days are my favorite. those days mean i'm happy, not just content.

i always, always write it at the end of the day, though. it might not be right before i go to bed, but it's always the latest i can do it without forgetting it. you have to let the day happen to be grateful for the day you had. and i always write in ink. part of that is because i have a very strong dislike for pencil (i refuse to use traditional pencils. ever. REFUSE. only pencil you'll get me to use is eyeliner or mechanical.) and because the things you're grateful for don't get erased in real life, so why should they even have the possibility of being erased in a notebook? (that also applies to all of my writing. my god, i hate pencil SO MUCH!!!)

anyways, i'm thinking about challenging myself this week, starting with tonight. i'm going to go CRAZY with taking pictures every day, especially of things i'm thankful for. but just pictures in general, too. i need to get into the swing of taking the camera i share with mom with me more places, anyways. that way i get more than just pictures of myself and my woods.

and then i might be able to get my dad to get me a camera.

happy weekend! what are you thankful for?