Pondering

Pondering on what to write about today and I thought to myself, if only I could remember where my writings entitled ‘Ponderings’ were and I may be able to draw inspiration from them. No such fortune and for all I know, I may have even discarded them. I cannot remember. Oh how fantastic my memory once was. A culmination of age and certain life experiences have resulted in it operating less effectively. I try to challenge it but it ends up challenging me.

Now out comes my trusty weekly planner as I recall a task I need to complete this week. This one I cannot leave to chance that I will remember it. A nagging feeling sits with me that there is another task I need to write down too and bingo; it comes back to me. As I pen these, more and more come to mind. My weekly planner looks like a checkerboard of notes and filling up far too quickly. Do I wish to remember any more tasks, imminent or otherwise? Hmm, not at the moment I say.

I still love to write with a nice pen and I love my stationery. I am in heaven in a stationery store! I enjoy seeing the handwritten as so much of what we see and read are in typed form these days. Sure there are nice fonts to use but there is something gorgeous about seeing a person’s handwriting and linking it to them. A part of them shared. Have you taken notice of older folks handwriting; that beautiful cursive form? Much of that is lost even from my generation and I would be very surprised if any of my grandchildren’s generation develops such beautiful form.

Convenience threatens both our memory and handwriting. We have great technological devices that help us organise our lives at a few presses, we have predictive text so we don’t even have to exercise our memory to recall how words are spelt and we can add reminders to events in our calendars so we don’t even need to remember what our schedule for the day is. Not a whiff of ink anywhere or an ounce of handwriting. In saying this, I am not in any way discounting the benefits these conveniences also hold.

For me, I like a mixture of mediums, the tangible and the technological. This combination I find helpful. I may mix it up at times and take handwritten notes with me on outings so I am exercising my memory and not relying on my electronic calendar. I tried using an electronic shopping list and have resumed using a handwritten one; it feels nicer. I like looking at a lovely stationery design rather than a plain electronic device and its bland note colours.

I chuckle to myself as I see the irony of this as I am typing away on the dull coloured keyboard of my black device. I also smile too as I can see my trusty pretty planner and pen sitting nicely on my desk to the right of me and a notebook and pen to the left; my helpful combination.

May your memory function well today and your handwriting bring joy x

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