About The Blog

Hello and welcome to my website!  I'm Gilly B and within the pages of The Purple Notebook you'll find my poems, my thoughts and my life lessons (it's been quite a journey). 

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What is The Purple Notebook?  This is definitely not an easy question to answer!  The Purple Notebook is like a camera; it’s how I record the world around me.  It contains my thoughts, my inspiration and my ideas.  The Purple Notebook is my story keeper!  I am a story teller.

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The Purple Notebook (it is deserving of the initial capitals) goes everywhere with me.  People often raise an eyebrow when they see me get it out, open it up, run my hand over its beautiful, smooth purple leather, smile at it as I whisper “hello old friend” and start to write.  Maybe they think I’m crazy – after all I’m talking to a book – maybe they’re right! 

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The Purple Notebook is my confidante, it is the one place in all the world where I am safe to be me.  It doesn’t judge me and it asks nothing of me.  It is my safe haven and its pages hold my hurts, my dreams and my magic.  They hold my stories.

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How did I come by such a wonderful book?  I dreamed it into existence of course!  No, seriously I did!!  Now I promise I will try not to get too “woo woo”, so bear with me here, but this is a true story…………

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I was having a Reiki session with the most intuitive, inspirational and spiritual woman I know (oh come on, you promised to bear with me!) and I was in that deeply relaxed state, the one just before you fall asleep.  For some time I had been wrestling with the idea of what I was supposed to do with my life; what was my purpose?  Other people seemed to instinctively know what theirs was, but me – well into my fifties and still no idea!  As I drifted deeper into relaxation I had a …… not sure what I had really.  A dream?  A vision (too much woo woo?)?  Well whatever it was, I “heard” my Dad saying to me “I gave you a voice Gillian, use it.  Use your voice”.  Now, my Dad died 45 years ago and I don’t have many memories of him but my brain is convinced that it was his voice.  I choose to accept that and I choose not to question the woo wooness of it (that word is a Gillism, stick with me and you’ll get used to them I promise).  It was my Dad. 

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It took me a few weeks to work out what my voice actually is, but when the neurons finally made it through the treacle that is my brain I had a huge “aha!!” moment.  My voice is my writing, my voice is my stories!!  Seems pretty obvious now, but like I said, treacle brain.

 

The Christmas of that year, I was gifted The Purple Notebook.  A stunning, leather bound, refillable (I love that about it!) notebook that is inscribed “Use Your Voice” followed by my Dad’s initials.  A tangible reminder that I have a voice and that my purpose is to use that voice to tell my stories.  Of course life isn't that simple and straight forward and it's taken me a few years of scribbling in The Purple Notebook before I have come to the point where I am ready to share my writing with the world, but here I am, putting it all out here and using my voice to tell my story of self development and how I got to this point.

 

This blog is my way of sharing those stories with you; some are poems, some are fact and some are fiction.  They all have a common thread, they are all the stories of my life and the lessons I’ve learned along the way.  I hope you enjoy them and that they bring you as much joy to read as they bring me when I write them.

 

Please have a browse around the site, check out my blog page by clicking the link below - that's were all the really good stuff is!

Gilly