New Year, New Vision

Ah the blog, it has slipped. Mostly fallen off the radar. Life, and all of that, has overtaken, and I have had trouble keeping up, trouble knowing what to say. But, it is a new year, and with that come new challenges, responsibilities, and new hopes.

This year, I have been blessed to be invited to be a part of something very special. I have the privilege to be an ambassador for Gadanke journals. If you've never heard about this incredible undertaking, please check them out: www.gandanke.com. (Note: I'm currently writing this on my iPad, so adding links is not so easy, and I'm not sure if my photos will work, or if I'll eventually have to add them via a computer later.)

Anyhow, as a Gadanke ambassador, my first project is to share a really exciting project designed to reach out to and encourage children to celebrate their stories. The Time Capsule For Kids journal allows kids to record the things that they think about, love, fear, wonder, hope, and so much more. I have had the chance to look over the new book, and I so wish I had had something like this when I was a kid. Of course, as a prolific writer from early childhood, I have an assortment of my thoughts and ideas captured, but their just fragments, and they don't tell the whole story in the voice of the me I used to be.

In this world where kids spend more time staring at screens than climbing trees, where their vocabulary has been reduced from full words and ideas to acronyms and text speech, wouldn't it be great to pull them back to reality, even in some small way, to celebrate the simple things that bring them joy, and to discover the beauty of what they can create with their own hands? The Time Capsule For Kids can help to provide them with that opportunity, and hopefully inspire them to continue to document their lives in the future.

So, what would you put in a time capsule from your childhood? What bits of pieces from your childhood do you wish you could remember with the poignancy they once carried? What do you cherish now that you would like to recall on difficult days in the years to come? This doesn't have to be a journal for children only, it can help anyone who wants to hold on to the precious bits and pieces of life that can so easily slip from our grasp.

(Unfortunately, I have still been unable to convince my iPad and blogger to work together, so you'll have to check out my photos on Instagram :)

Here is a little look into what I might have put into a time capsule as a kid. And think about where you might have gone to write as a child, or where you might want to escape to as an adult...

There are so many possibilities.

Another important part of the Gadanke mission is helping women and children in crisis. They have developed a program where these journals can be purchased at 50% of the retail cost and they will be donated to children who have suffered from domestic violence. Katie Clemons, the creative visionary and journal crafter behind Gadanke, is passionate about helping people celebrate their stories, and live a more intentional life. She is using #shareastory to help promote the way the Time Capsule Journal For Kids can have an impact.

So, in this New Year, I hope I, too, will be able to reach out and help others come to a place where they can celebrate the lives they are living, and discover that we all are important.