Monday 17 August 2015

Today


I have just begun to read a New York Times book club recommendation, The Folded Clock: A Diary by Heidi Julavits. Her prose is beautiful. Remembering the diaries she kept as a child, and re-reading them with interest in order to discover some early evidence of the person (and writer) she’d since become, she is somewhat horrified to find that the diaries revealed her ‘to possess the mind of a paranoid tax auditor.’

 Like many of the diaries I am sure most of us kept as a child the entries all began with ‘Today’ and then went on to list all the things that her day had held: ‘Today I went to school’. ‘Today, I went to Andrea’s house.’ ‘Today, I did nothing.’ Julavits writes amusingly of how she, ‘exhibited no imagination, no trace of style, no wit, no personality. Each entry is an accounting of (or an expressed anxiety about ) my school performance.’

In the The Folded Clock, Julavits writes in diary form a (according to the blurb on the back of the book!) ‘…meditation of time and self, youth and aging, betrayal and loyalty, friendship and romance, faith and fate, marriage and family, desire and death, gossip and secrets, art and ambition.’ I am only on page 16 and so do not feel equipped to write with authority as to the books content, but I am liking, already the fact that she starts every diary entry with the word that dominated her childhood journals, ‘Today.’ Unashamedly, I decided to copy her. The only similarity between my ‘today’ and hers though, is simply the word.

Today, the summer ended and three children returned to school. Enthusiasm was not high but at least for this one day they all looked smart. Today, I forgot to take photos of them looking smart.

Today I made healthy smoothies for breakfast. Today, I felt like a good mother even though only one child drank them. The others ate pop tarts. Today, I am not going to worry about pop tarts.

Today, for the first time in 13 weeks a whole day stretched in front of me which I could use simply for work. Today I went for a manicure this morning and met a friend for lunch.

Today I made a coffee shop my office. Today I climbed a mountain of emails, texts, Facebook messages, direct tweets. Today I felt like a Munro bagger.

Today I enjoyed the sunshine and took a long, slow walk through the streets I call ‘home’. Today I decided that when one lives in Scotland you should always take ‘sun days’ not ‘snow days.’

Today, I picked myself up and dusted myself down. Today, I recognised that I might have to leave some of the dusting down until tomorrow. Today I picked myself up.

Today I wrote some words when I had no words. Today I wrote because I have something to say.

Today I noticed that when you fall you still move forward. Today I fell forward.  

What did you do today?










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3 comments

  1. Today I read a blog. A thoughtful and well crafted blog. Today I went to bed encouraged and inspired. Thank you Jenny. X

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    1. Thank you so much! Really kind & encouraging of you to say. X

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