How did it become November already? The days and months really are flying by and while October seemed to whoosh by in a flash, I’m happy to report that I stuck to my October goal of writing more. Writing more for myself, that is. I might not have accomplished a full notebook entry each day, but I wrote memories down in my calendar, completed full entries when I could and was just more aware of the kinds of writing I engaged in overall. 

And here’s the fascinating thing: When I paid more attention to what I wrote about each day, I actually paid more attention to my life in general. When we think about the words we leave behind, we can’t help but then about the experiences that prompted us to leave them.

Shift our writing, shift our life.

I was pondering what my word for November should be when all of a sudden, it stared at me from my computer screen and I instantly knew what my word would be. 

Recipe. 

I was chatting in the #shelfietalk twitter chat this past week about the power of our reading and writing lives (head here for the archive, if you’re interested!). Katie Prescott, an educator in Canada, shared how she ends each night capturing a memory on a recipe card and then looks back over the memories she’s made over the years in this unique format. 

How fabulous.

That’s when I knew I needed to give this a try. Here was my aha moment:

Can you imagine having a recipe card of all the beautiful moments of your life to browse through years later? What a treasure that would be! Of course, I want to try it.

So this month, I’ll extend my focus on writing and document memorable moments in a recipe format. I’ve browsed recipe cards to try (I had NO IDEA there were that many!) and have settled on a simple design like the one below. 

Each day, I’ll capture a memory in recipe form to document my life across the month, building gratitude and appreciation for what I have, experience and love into the recipe, too. 

What’s your word for November?