Beginning to gather up the year. I can’t believe I put my hands on all my 2017 journals so quickly. Often I’m on a hunt all over the house, on bookcases, in tote bags, or who knows where else to get them all in one place. Soon I will begin to read back through them, highlighting, circling, indexing words, phrases, questions, quotes that leap off the page or that I want to forget I recorded. It’s another piece of my writing ritual that connects my writing to my life, that helps me make sense of what sometimes feels like random ramblings over blank pages…grateful for my pen and paper and another year.