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I am grateful for pens and notebooks / journals.

This is not a joke, I truly am. I’ve always been a pen and paper lover. The things that have been most gifted to me in my life are journals. I used to travel back from Europe or whatever far flung country with half of my bag filled with notebooks and pens because at the time, you couldn’t get that stuff in the U.S. In fact, in just about every country I have been to, I’ve bought at least one pen. To me, there is an familiar joy that arises when a pen glides across its exact paper match or you start a fresh journal full of possibility. I swear flow of writing comes easier. It spills out.

I am grateful for these two tools not just because of their aesthetic characteristics, but what they allow me to do; write, record, remember, process, doodle, color, create, imagine, map, and tell stories.

In the Autumn of 2021 during a massive cleanout, I found my first ever journal (or at least I think it is). It spans from about 7 years old until 12 years old. I know this because even 7 year old Sawrah wrote the date and time on her pages…yes I still do this, ha. I’m so grateful to have found that journal. Its contents were completely different than what I expected when I laid eyes on it for the first time in decades. It even had a lock and key, (no joke), and miraculously, the key was in a tiny ring box, right near the journal in a box of utter chaos.

This is all to say, my love of office supplies, in particular pens and notebooks started young and continues to this day. I regularly have to put a moratorium on myself for purchases of this nature when my stock gets too high. I also know that when I start buying a lot of them at once, it is a warning sign. It’s kind of a funny flag to find in your psyche, but I know it when I see it, and I know what it means, which I am also grateful for.