OLW 2023 - January

... and that's January, well near enough.  I don't know about anyone else but that went quick.  I thought I would share my pages and thoughts about my choice of OLW and going digital to document my word this year.

When I started the process of picking a OLW I was struggling.  I didn't have a word, which is unusual for me and I had now ideas at all at what I was looking for.  I had several words picked but none really sat right.  I listened to the zoom call between Ali and the other contributors, taking notes and still nothing was coming in the way of a word.  Ali starting talking about her word, Joy, which was on my list but not a front runner.  But, then Ali said "I want to reclaim JOY" and "boom" that hit me in the face like, WOW, that's it.  Until that moment I didn't really think I needed to reclaim anything, but my thoughts were going crazy, my heart was beating fast and then I had this realisation that although I am on the other side of cancer, I still wasn't allowing myself to fully embrace being free of cancer.  This was a shock to me, really it was, but I started to realise that I was still so scared and not game enough to say I was free of cancer, because what if I did, what if I jinxed myself.  It was at that moment that my word was born and I begun my OLW journey for 2023.

So far I love it.  I really do love it.  I gave myself permission to just go slow with January's prompt, not rush to get my pages finished (like I usually do) and really be mindful about my OLW and how I wanted to document it.

One of the BIG advantages of going digital is that my pages are not set in stone, until the book is printed really.  So I made my pages slowly, playing with the digital kit and other digital supplies that I have.  I changed some things, changed them back to the way they were and also played a little in procreate to make my own digital elements.  If January is anything to go by, my choice to go digital was a good one.  I love that I can change my mind, re-order my pages, add a page in etc etc.  While I am calling January done I am not ruling out adding more in or taking more out.

The only down side that I have found so far is not having the physical pages to flick through.  Looking back at my notebooks/albums (from past years), during the year was something I loved to do.  However, so far I have more positives than negatives so I will continue on my digital journey and see how we finish up.

How have you been going with your OLW?  I hope you are enjoying the process, no matter how you have decided to document this journey.

I am excited about February...

Love me :-)