Month: August 2022

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Journaling Jumpstart: The Easiest Way to Start or Restart a Journaling Habit

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journaling jumpstartDo you write in a journal regularly? Or have you for some period of time in your past? I must admit that I am a sporadic journaler. For a period of time I can be very committed and it feels like a habit. And then I fall away. I really don’t know why that happens. I find that a simple strategy to get into the routine again can be this journaling jumpstart: a one-line-a-day journal.

Writing just one line eacg day in a journal designed just for that purpose is a great way to start a micro habit. You can expand from there, writing more than one line or transfer to a different kind of journaling later if you choose. The point is to get started.

Here is a simple one-line a day journal of mine: One-Line-A-Day Journal . It’s a printable that you can get right away and get started. Your line of the day can be a highlight, a thought, a memory, a question, or anything else that comes to mind.

You may wonder what the value of this could be. Here are 3 benefits:

  • It is a way to mark the days. I don’t know if this is your experience, but for me days blend together so easily. This has accelerated during the past years of the pandemic. Just taking a couple of minutes to identify something about this day, this 24-hour period of your life, is a pause to acknowledge it and its value to you.
  • It records a memory that you can review later. That one line can remind you of more of that day, and the collection of lines can give you perspective on that week, month or year of your life.
  • It may arouse your interest in a larger or different kind of journaling.

Why  and How to Explore Other Types of Journaling

Many of us think of journaling as deep reflection about our lives. And that scares or puts off lots of people. It may be because they are not interested in doing that or because it just seems like too much time and effort that takes away from the realities of life.

Journaling is a multi-faceted tool that can be valuable in many stages and situations of our lives. As I wrote here (https://carolbrusegar.com/journaling-as-a-tool/) , it can help you gather ideas and brainstorm solutions, capture your life experiences, discover more about yourself, and track your personal growth in one or more areas.

Journaling can also be a real catalyst for increasing your creativity. To boost your creativity, expand your journaling from only words in full sentences to include drawing, mixed media, mind mapping, and brainstorming. For more details on this, see https://carolbrusegar.com/journaling-techniques-to-boost-your-creativity/

Using the one-line-a day journaling jumpstart can be the beginning of something more. If you would like to explore the possibilities of journaling, I invite you to sign up for my FREE 7-part ecourse: “Journaling: a Prism to Clarify and Enhance All Aspects of Life.” Get the details here: https://carolbrusegar.com/journaling-explore-the-possibilities/

I’m Carol Brusegar, author, photographer and curator of information. My focus is on gathering and writing on topics that enhance all our lives – regardless of our age. Topics include health and wellness, personal development, innovation and creativity, and a variety of helpful, practical tools and practices. I have a special interest in helping people over 50 years of age to create their 3rd Age – the next stage of their lives – to be the best it can be.

Here are a few of my books on Amazon.com. Search by title or go to my author page:  https://amazon.com/author/carolbrusegar

My books

 

         

 

 

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Embracing and Celebrating the Cycle of Seasons

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Recently the appearance of Joni Mitchell at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival – her first full concert since 2000 – caught the attention of people across the world. Her unique music of the late 1960s and beyond brought memories to many and introduced new generations to those treasures of our youth. The cycle of seasons was highlighted in one of her songs.

“The seasons they go round and round….  We’re captive on the carousel of time.”  Those words from “Circle Game” have that tone of nostalgia and also slow us down from the onward and upward, always progressing and getting better theme that dominates our culture these days.

“The Seasons They Go Round and Round”

We are all conscious of the cyclical movement in our lives as seasons change from summer to fall to winter to spring. Summer sun to fall leaves to winter cold to spring rebirth. Depending on where you live, those changes may be more or less dramatic. Even where they are less pronounced, the change in hours of daylight and temperatures assure that we experience the cycle of seasons.

One of those seasonal shifts is beginning. The shift from summer to fall seems elongated with school schedules so varied these days. Even if we don’t have children or grandchildren in school, the news and the sales promotions let us know that summer fun is shifting to school routines for children, teens and adults in higher education or training.

It’s been a particularly hot summer in much of the country and the world. Many are eagerly anticipating the shift to cooler temperatures and enjoying warm sweaters and candles. Does that include you?

Celebrating the Cycle of Seasons

How do you experience the seasonal cycle? Do you barely notice? Do you make routine changes like wardrobe, food choices, etc.? Do you celebrate each season, having favorite ways to embrace and experience every one as it comes along?

Let me make the case for the latter option. Celebrating each passing season acknowledges the “Circle Game” of Joni Mitchell’s song – but with a different tone. I love the song, but there’s a sadness in it. Perhaps it the minor key of the music.

Celebration is looking forward to the experiences you most enjoy in any given season. It’s prioritizing and planning for certain things that you want to happen so the pace of your life doesn’t allow the season to pass before you know it. Your ‘I’d like to….” thoughts for the next season can become reality if you make a bucket list and get out the calendar. I wrote about making a fall bucket list here: https://carolbrusegar.com/autumn-pleasures-and-treasures/make-a-fall-bucket-list/

Celebration is sharing your favorite parts of the season with others, by including them or sharing your experiences to encourage them to immerse themselves in the uniqueness of the time of year. Celebration may be recording those special times in journals, poetry, photos, or art.

As you look toward fall, what are you looking forward to? What things do you always treasure? What have you wanted to do but never have? What did you do sometime in the past and loved but haven’t done for awhile? Even if it feels too soon to do this as the summer heat continues, this process can shift your  mindset from weariness to anticipation and excitement.

To get you started, here’s a free simple Fall Bucket List form to download, print and use: Fall Bucket List. I also invite you to visit and like my Facebook page, Enjoying Every Season 

One way I enjoy for celebrating the seasons is to switch decor in my home. Even a few changes can make a big difference. Here’s a place to explore what you might want to add: Autumn/Fall Decor

 

I’m Carol Brusegar, author, photographer and curator of information. My focus is on gathering and writing on topics that enhance all our lives – regardless of our age. Topics include health and wellness, personal development, innovation and creativity, and a variety of helpful, practical tools and practices. I have a special interest in helping people over 50 years of age to create their 3rd Age – the next stage of their lives – to be the best it can be.

           Follow me on Twitter!     Follow me on Instagram!   Follow me on Pinterest!

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ONE OLD PHOTO – A WINDOW INTO BASEBALL AND BARNSTORMING IN THE 1930s

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“Take me out to the ball game.
Take me out with the crowd….
For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out.
At the old ball game!”

It all began when I saw again a blurry photo labeled “Park Day 1933” among my mother’s photos. The photo was of a Black baseball team, some doffing their caps for the photographer.  The photo had intrigued me before but this time I pursued more information.

It was taken in Cambria, Wisconsin where the population was 671 in 1930, a white farming community of mostly Welsh and German heritage – almost certainly all white. It is 46 miles from Madison and 85 miles from Milwaukee: a pretty isolated area. What was the story behind this photo? How did the residents receive this team? I was so curious!

I contacted the Cambria-Friesland Historical Society via Facebook messaging and asked what they knew about this day. Mary Jane helpfully tracked down a newspaper description about that Park Day in 1933:

 “On Tuesday, August 22, 1933 the House of David of Benton Harbor, Michigan played the Giant Collegians of Piney Woods, Mississippi.” The article states the Collegians also played at Park Day the year before, and on August 21, 1934 the Collegians returned and played “Happy” Felsch’s Wilkes Dairy team of Milwaukee.

The Giant Collegians

Aha! Zooming in I could see “Giant Collegians” on the baseball shirts. A starting point! Piney Woods at that time was a junior college. It was one of many historically Black colleges and universities around the country who fielded baseball teams that traveled around playing all over the United States in the 1920s and 1930s to raise money for their colleges.

It turns out that not only those teams but other teams, Black and white, were organized into leagues and traveled around from town to town – particularly small towns in rural areas to entertain. It was called Barnstorming and it started in about 1860 on a small level but grew massively during the 1920s and 1930s with poor economic conditions (the Great Depression of the 1930s). It provided entertainment for the communities and income for the players or their organizations. Baseball was the number one sport in the country during these years, so crowds always showed up.

I learned that in 1932 135 players tried out for the Piney Woods team and they sponsored three teams – the Giant Collegians, the Brown Cubs, and the Little Brown Cubs. Together they played  169 games in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota, winning 148 games, losing or tying 21. They played against professional squads as well as semi-professional and amateur teams. In 1933, the Giant Collegians team headed to the Midwest to play 20 games in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The total number of games played that season is unclear.

Piney Woods added a twist by surprising the fans who stood expecting to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch. Instead, a quartet sang a couple of Negro spirituals, told the story of their school, and solicited donations. The music and the story served to expand the awareness of the audience to a culture they knew little to nothing about.  A definite bonus!

The House of David

The Collegians’ 1933 opponent at Cambria Park Day – the day the photo was taken – was House of David of Benton Harbor, Michigan. They turned out to be a unique piece of barnstorming history! The House of David, established in 1903, was a sect that lived communally and considered themselves Christian Israelites. They got into the barnstorming circuits in about 1915.

Photo credit: Chris Siriano’s House of David Baseball Museum

They couldn’t cut their hair, so their appearance was distinctive among the baseball teams. They followed a strict moral code and were strict vegetarians. That moral code included egalitarian beliefs so they played against teams of all kinds including Negro League and historically Black college teams like the Piney Woods Giant Collegians. Apparently an example of this happened on that Park Day in Cambria, Wisconsin on August 22, 1933.

The team even traveled for a few weeks some summers with the Kansas City Monarchs in the depth of the Depression for financial reasons. The Monarchs were known as the greatest Negro team of them all. In an interview House of David player Lloyd Dalagar said, “We didn’t care what color they were. To us they were just gifted athletes who weren’t allowed to play in the big leagues.”

In 1934, before their largest crowd to date, they defeated the first Negro team invited to the famed Denver Post Tournament, their traveling companions the great Kansas City Monarchs, for the championship.

This book provides rich information about the barnstorming teams and specifically the House of David and its teams. (They had up to three teams at some times.)

Baseball and the House of David: The Legendary Barnstorming Teams, 1915-1956  by P.J. Dragseth.

“Happy” Felsch’s Wilkes Dairy Team of Milwaukee

I was unable to find information about this team that apparently played the Giant Collegians on Park Day 1934. Perhaps it only played locally and sporadically. But “Happy” Felsch was a renowned baseball player from Milwaukee who rose to fame in the Chicago White Sox team beginning in the 1915 season. The scandal about the fixing of the 1919 World Series (the Black Sox scandal) derailed his promising major league career. Although there is detailed information available about his activities after that, I could not find a barnstormer team of that name, or even just connected with Wilkes Dairy. The Society for American Baseball Research is the creator of the detailed account of Felsch’s life: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/happy-felsch/

The Life of Barnstormers

Life on the road was tough for barnstormers and even more so for the Black teams. For all of them, the drought that extended through the decade of the 1930s caused dust storms in the Midwest and southern Great Plains which impacted travel and availability of food and water. They traveled by bus mostly, with automobiles in some cases. Extreme heat, vehicles without air conditioning and travel on backroads to reach small towns made for tough travel. Black players weren’t allowed in hotels in these years of segregation and Jim Crow laws. But still they played.

Reflections

This fascinating journey of exploration began with one blurry photograph from 1933.  I am grateful to learn more about the time, the town and the sport – including the examples of breaks in the segregation of the time. I would love to learn about reactions of the people of Cambria to these (at least 3) visits of the Giant Collegians and their opponents. What kind of welcome did they receive? Was there apprehension or fear? Any backlash? Perhaps I can learn more. And I will be looking for other opportunities to explore stories behind photos from the past. Stories expand our awareness in profound ways. The path from generalized facts and knowledge to more specifics is a rich one.

I’m Carol Brusegar, author, photographer and curator of information. My focus is on gathering and writing on topics that enhance all our lives – regardless of our age. Topics include health and wellness, personal development, innovation and creativity, and a variety of helpful, practical tools and practices. I have a special interest in helping people over 50 years of age to create their 3rd Age – the next stage of their lives – to be the best it can be.