100 Little Things #26: Start a commonplace notebook.
I’m so excited about this one! I have a really bad habit of jotting down quotes or information on the closest thing possible. Sticky notes, napkins, discarded artwork from the kids…I end up with gazillions of random pieces of paper. Then I’m left with a pile of clutter, I get frustrated with it all and typically throw the bunch in the trash. Definitely time for a better system.
So I’m trying the commonplace notebook. Wikipedia describes it as, “essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: medical recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas. Commonplaces were used by readers, writers, students, and scholars as an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts they had learned. Each commonplace book was unique to its creator’s particular interests.”
I found an unused notebook and I’ve been using it off and on for about a week now. It’s challenging in the way only our generation really understands – I could complete the task in a much more efficient (digital) way, but instead, I’m choosing the opposite. Taking pen to paper is yet another way to slow down, to take the time to reflect on what moved/challenged/spoke to me in my reading. I’m being stretched and I think that’s a good thing.
Current book: The Way by St. Josemaria Escriva
Favorite quote this week (I loved the image of God’s fatherly tenderness!):
“That discouragement, produced by your repeated lack of generosity, by your relapses, by your falls – perhaps only apparent – often makes you feel as if you had broken something of exceptional value: your sanctification.
Don’t be worried: bring to your supernatural life the wise way simple children have of resolving such a conflict.
They have broken – nearly always through frailty – an object that is dear to their father. They’re sorry, perhaps they shed tears, but they go to seek consolation from the owner of what has been damaged through their awkwardness; and their father forgets the value – great though it may be – of the broken object and, filled with tenderness, he not only pardons, but consoles and encourages the little one. Learn.” — #887
Your handwriting gives me all the heart eyes!
And I'm with you– there is something therapeutic about putting pen to paper.
Lastly, I have never heard of a commonplace book, but I use my regular journal for sort of the same idea. After I read a book, I write all the quotes I underlined in my journal. I also tuck letters or quotes into my journal as I go along. But I love the idea of one special notebook for that specific purpose.
As always, you're inspiring me!!!
I've sort of started doing this myself but didn't know there was a name for it! 😉
I know! Gotta love the rabbit trails of Pinterest searching 🙂