Bite the Bullet (Journal)-PLAN WITH ME: July 2019

#NOTsoRandom FACT: 

The truth I want to send up this Tuesday, July 9, 2019: 

I watched this YouTube video about Christian bullet journaling:

I wanted to learn more about what a bullet journal is is the secular context. So, I read this BuzzFeed article: "WTF Is A Bullet Journal And Why Should You Start One? An Explainer" (https://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelwmiller/how-to-start-a-bullet-journal).

This lead me to this video: "How to declutter your mind -- keep a journal | Ryder Carroll | TEDxYale"
https://youtu.be/ym6OYelD5fA

So, I decided to start bullet journaling the last week of June. Since it was only a week and I was still trying to figure out how to tailor the bullet journal to my needs, I started with this basic two-page layout for June:

(NOTE: Photo taken on July 1st) 

I also created a title page:

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And I created a symbols key page:

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I also thought it was important to have copies of the poems whose words stick with me always:

[If]

[A Prayer for Peace]

During the last week of June, I also started planning July. I knew that I wanted my bullet journal to have a:

• Monthly Log
• Habit Tracker
• Mood Tracker 
• Master/Big Picture To Do List
• Future Log
• Daily Gratitude/Prayer Journal/To Do
• Weekday Bible Study
• Reading List
• Crochet/Knitting Project Tracker 

I don't need an index because each month was going to be permanently housed in a binder with its name on it that was indexed by the calendar day for posterity. My bible study is going to be permanently housed with each book of the bible having its own binder and each chapter having its wn tab (NOTE: this makes it easier to migrate my current gratitude journaling and bible study my previous efforts).

This is what things look like on July 1st:

At church on Sunday, Minister Barbara Florvil asked us: "What are you going to do with your corner of the world?"

I start each of my Truth Going Up blogs with a with a #NOTsoRandom FACT and a TRUTH. I included this in my June 2019 journal and delved deeper in my July 2019 journal:

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While we were waiting for his One year, my father delicious ribs to finish cooking on the grill in our backyard, my father had me to read Frederick Douglas' "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" aloud. It was just me, Papa, our German Shepherd Ruffhouse and the birds and insects (my mother and brother were inside the house). July 4ths in the Nelson household were a combination of celebrating the country that my father fought for as a TITLE in the United States Army AND acknowledging the systemic hypocrisy and oppression that are also as American as apple pie. We would talk about the injustices that we faced (such as my father being racially profiled in our mostly white neighborhood in the suburb of Waukesha, WI; my mother, a black female bench chemist at one of the leading pharmaceutical companies, doing twice the work but being paid nearly half of what her white male counterparts were paid, and my kindergarten teacher telling me it wouldn't be right for me to play Little Bo Peep as I wanted and that instead I was going to be the black sheep in our nursery rhyme because "...I looked the part"). But, we wouldn't just air our grievances. 

My parents are solutions-oriented individuals. Embedded in these conversations were strategy sessions about tangible steps each of us were going to do to make the world a better and more equitable place. So, I decided to make the fact and truth I lift up this month pay homage to this family legacy and recommit myself to using my passion, purpose and God-given gifts to improve my your corner of the world.

I have started sketching out the monthly log for August: