About
the Project
The Notebook Project began on March 15, 2006 as the brainchild of
Judy Ranieri and Susan Taylor, two women who are passionate about
getting women’s voices out into the world. With life comes
change. First, Susan left the project in November 2006, to pursue
other opportunities. She remains a strong supporter of the project,
which is now being run solely by Judy. Second, the notebook, which
was originally handed or mailed from one woman to the next, is now
accepting email contributions.
Often, in the beginning of a project you try to guide it
in the direction you want it to go and then somewhere along
the line, it takes on a life of its own and guides you in the direction
it wants to go. That’s exactly what happened with The
Notebook Project, which started with the mailing of 63 notebooks.
When Judy took The Notebook Project to the United Nations, women from developing countries repeatedly told her, “You must make this available online.” Judy found out that in the most remote parts of the world, residents often have more access to an Internet café than a post office. One woman told her that she saw the Internet café roll into town while visiting a remote village in India. The “café” consisted of a laptop in a backpack worn by a man on a bicycle.
There are now over 300 notebooks circulating in
15 different countries as well
as the online notebook. While many women enjoyed the challenge
posed by the poem and questions in the first notebooks, others
became self-conscious. The two questions, “Who are you?” and “What
do you want?” caused some women to freeze.
Some notebooks were returned blank, often with apologetic
notes for not following through on their commitment. Some
women admitted to making several attempts, but felt that
what they wrote wasn’t “good
enough” or “I just couldn’t find the time.” One
wrote, “When I moved in with my boyfriend, I packed the notebook
away and just found it now (one year later) and decided to
return it "because I didn’t want to hold it up any longer.” Responses
like these caused Judy to look at some of the underlying
issues that can get in our way: perfectionism, competition,
and self-consciousness, all of which can cause us to freeze
up. Coaches call this “the
gremlin,” or as a friend once said, “It’s like
a yapping Chihuahua in my head.” The question then became
how to make The Notebook Project more “user
friendly?” (Click
here for instructions)
The most important thing is for you to feel comfortable
sharing your bits of wisdom – to write from your own experiences
and from your own heart. There is no right or wrong answer. That’s
the part that makes it fun! You get to find your personal
truth and speak it out loud! You get to say what you want and choose
how you want to say it. Perhaps you have a favorite image: a flower,
sunset, baby’s smile, tree, rainbow, or the night
sky. It could be a place – your favorite meadow, your favorite
spot to meditate, or the ocean. It could be a life experience that
changed you from that moment forward. Perhaps it was a car accident,
a major health problem, the loss of a loved one, or the loss of your
youth. Was there a moment of truth, an “aha” moment that
made you look at life through new eyes?
When we hear the stories of women who have expressed tears
of laughter and joy, fear and courage, uncertainty and clarity, we
begin to see our reflections in each other.
The purpose of The Notebook Project remains the same – to give women a safe place to share their wisdom with the world. The belief underpinning The Notebook Project is that there is great value in collective wisdom. Please lend your voice to this project.
