In practice of reminding and remembering

I released a guided journal today!

Welcome to “Portal Hopping,” my mostly-monthly newsletter where I write about art, Disability and other things that rise to the surface of my heart.

Image Description: An illustration of a large group of abstract characters holding hands with stars and hearts surrounding them. “Take care of each other,” is handwritten in the center of the illustration.

Journaling has been a practice of mine for several years and so much of the art that I have made, especially for my oracle deck, stemmed from journal entries reflecting on my various experiences. Something I love about journaling itself is being able to look back when I felt uncertainty about things. I’m able to pinpoint when I was feeling certain emotions and see how differently I responded or remind myself of ways that supported me when I felt similar feelings.

Shortly after the creation of my oracle deck, the publisher for it was in the talks with me about creating a guided journal to branch off of the deck. Having the oracle deck out in the world has been a slow start due to outside forces beyond my control. Those forces, brain surgery recovery and having Long-COVID, helped me to come up with the concept for a journal.

Between navigating brain-fog from Long-COVID and settling into the acknowledgment that the brain surgeries I had could’ve easily cultivated in drastic memory loss or death, documenting things in real time has become precious for me. Not documenting for the sake of posting on social media, but rather to preserve my memories.

A journal has the potential to be a container and guidebook for ourselves. It’s a tool that helps us remember. In the ever-shifting landscape we are facing, it’s important to acknowledge that memory is fickle and can be so easily manipulated by the powers that be.

Image Description: A photograph of the cover of my “Gentle Reminders Journal” that has the title on the cover, with subtext that says “A deep, loving guide to help you show up for yourself & others written and illustrated by Barry Lee” featuring two abstracted floating sunshine heads and a few stars floating on the cover as well.

I proposed an idea about creating a “Gentle Reminders” journal, where folks would be able to record their own reminders to turn back to at any time. I wanted the prompts in the journal to help people think about their roles in community and how they want to show up in our collective future.

Recording our experiences preserves them, recording our experiences makes sure that we don’t forget how we wish to show up in the world, it makes sure we don’t forget how things were and how things can be.

Image Descriptions: This graphic features two spreads from the journal. The spread on the top features an illustration of a character holding hands with their younger self with the text “Sometimes our past can support what’s actively present” written on the illustration. On the right page of the spread, is a journaling prompt that says “What’s a reminder from your childhood that you often return to?” The bottom spread features an illustration on the left page of two characters embracing each other with “tending to each other” handwritten on the illustration. The page on the right describes the section.

This journal is broken up into three sections: tending to ourselves, tending to each other, and tending to our future.

Something I wish I had done more of with the oracle deck was talk more about community building, so I wanted to be sure this journal built more of a bridge for that. I created over 60 new writing prompts and 40 new illustrations for this journal.

This is in no way a pre-written guide on how to be in relationship with yourself or in community with others, but rather allows you to formulate a guide which helps you align with how you wish to show up for yourself, your community and our collective future.

This journal also isn’t dependent on you having to get my oracle deck if that’s not your thing. This is a standalone offering, but the oracle deck does compliment it if you wish to receive both.

My hope with this journal is that it helps folks get closer to how they wish to show up in the world, especially as the world continues to be on fire. If you think this would be supportive for you, please consider picking up a copy, sharing it or giving a copy to a loved one in your life.

People have asked how to support me best when it comes to projects I’ve done that are published by others, and the answer is simply to buy them (preferably from independent bookstores). The more sales I receive, the quicker it takes for me to earn royalties in the long term.

I’ll be facilitating a reminder drawing workshop on Sunday, July 13th, 2-4 pm at Charis Books in Atlanta, where you can create a piece of reminder art for yourself or a loved one. The event is free, masks are required, and art supplies are provided!

I’m grateful to have this out in the world and thankful for your ongoing support.