The Process or the Outcome?

I haven’t been scrapbooking that long. I started right before David was
born but didn’t really, seriously get into it until last spring. One of
the complaints I see everywhere I go is how much people complain about
how many (or few) layouts they’ve finished. I’m always sort of taken
aback by this.

To me, it’s not about the quantity of pages you’ve finished. If you
really just want a way to display all the great photos you’ve taken,
there are photo albums both in real life and online to allow you to do
that. If you’re mostly about the stories, you can blog or write in a
journal. You can even combine the two in a blog or journal. You don’t
need to do scrapbook layouts for that. Cathy was just writing about how
the pages with just photos miss
the point for her. What is scrapbooking for you? This is a serious
question. Why do you do it?

I’ve been thinking about this a bunch lately. Here are my reasons:

• I’ve been really bad at writing my thoughts and feelings about
  David. I’ve tried a few times and it doesn’t work for me, so I needed to
  find a fun way to do it so I could preserve the memories of the early
  years of his personality and how I feel.
• I love playing with paint, pretty papers, embellishments, etc, so
  that part was a no-brainer.
• I’ve always loved looking at my childhood albums and wanted to give
  that gift to my children.
• Making art in just about any form makes me feel happy and calm and
  fulfilled. If I can manage to tell stories through my art, even more
  amazing. I love the idea of learning and growing to do more art. To let
  go of my left brain and rely on my right one a bit more.
• I adore my family. I love photography, writing, and art and what
  combines the four in a more magnificent way than scrapbooking?

So there you have it. For me, it’s not about getting published, getting
recognition, or using the most latest product. Most significantly, it’s
not about getting it done. The process is half the reason I do it. If I
am lucky, it will never be done. It will go on forever, until I can no
longer hold paper and glue. For as long as there is life, photos to
capture and stories to tell, there will be scrapbook pages to create.

So what’s the rush? Enjoy the journey.