I’m admittedly a bit of a germaphobe. And I’m pretty open about it. I’m not sure where this issue started, and I’m also not positive it’s even a bad habit to have. But I’ve noticed it’s become pretty prevalent in my life lately. I started assessing this habit and noticed a few things… Mostly that I seem to have hand sanitizer everywhere.

 

Seriously.

 

The basket on my kickbike has a scented mini-sized hand sanitizer bottle attached to it. My purse always has at least one bottle in it… and I guarantee it’s the one item I can always find. Car keys? Where are they?!. Sunglasses, lost, even though my purse is small-ish. Hand sanitizer? Here ya go! My car even has little bottles of ‘pocket-size’ sanitizer hidden throughout. And they all get used, which makes me thankful to be able to have a supplier for my habit.

 

As far as my germaphobic tendencies go, I’m not sure why I decided to admit to this quirk of mine, except that I noticed I’ve been washing my hands even more lately. But with good reason. See, I’ve let this site, my site of ramblings and nonsense, slide lately. I haven’t kept up with it, haven’t shared a fraction of my thoughts lately like I could have. (Which maybe is a good reason for you all to write me thank you notes for finally finding my filter. Miracles do happen!)

 

See, I’ve recently taken up a former habit that’s connected me to a time from what seems like long ago. A time when life was less technology focused. A time when pen and paper was used more.

 

Which is what I’ve been doing, actually penning my thoughts for a change. Writing out my life as I see it, as I need to. Laughter, tears, frustration fears… pages and pages… And as much as my imaginations and thoughts have been able to be expressed this way, it’s been more than just a release of creativity for me. It’s also been a much-needed form of therapy, as well. (God knows I need it. We all do, right?)  I’m not sure when or why or how I ever got out of the habit of actually writing, and not just typing. Maybe it’s because I think I’m a speedy typer, or because my writing is mostly illegible. Whatever the reason, it’s been cathartic to smear ink on pages and scribble out misspells. (Did I just admit to imperfection?!)

 

So for these last couple of weeks, for pen & paper, I have to admit, I am thankful…Thankful minus the need for scrubbing my hands more often than usual, due to ink. (I’m admittedly a messy writer.) Eventually, even for a semi-germaphobe like me, enough is enough when it comes to hand washing.

 

If you haven’t picked up a pen (or pencil if you prefer) in a while, if you’ve been stuck at your laptop or desktop too long, might I encourage you to find some paper… and write? Or doodle? Or sketch? Or scribble?… There’s a great amount of creativity we stifle as we press buttons instead of letting ink flow. We can’t dot our own “i’s” or cross our own “t’s” when we type. Not really, not naturally… definitely not uniquely. There’s something we deny of ourselves when we choose to not deny technology.

 

I say, use a pen, write something down! Let thoughts flow freely…And might I add that I don’t think grocery a list counts?

 

 

Who else is guilty of forsaking pens for their easily accessible keyboards?