A New Leaf Journal
Volumes 1–5
and
Selected New Leaf Readings

Step inside the endlessly creative world of Jim Gold. Written with honesty, humor, and an irrepressible sense of adventure, these five volumes follow Jim’s lifelong quest to begin fresh every day. Through music, folk dancing, travel, writing, work, struggle, and unexpected discovery, he explores what it means to live freely and create a life on your own terms. Filled with wisdom, wit, surprising ideas, and the courage to keep turning over new leaves, these journals invite readers to join the adventure—and perhaps begin a new chapter of their own. 

Prologue

An artist
Cannot be afraid to jump
Off a cliff
Into the dark, churning abyss;
To fall down, down, down
Into black, mysterious waters
And drink from turbulent streams
Of Creativity.

Introduction
It takes courage to turn over a new leaf, to make each day a new adventure, and to have fun doing it! That’s what Jim Gold does, out of his home office in Teaneck, New Jersey,
the headquarters of Jim Gold International. There, he plans his international folk tours, folk dance classes, guitar concerts, and Mad Shoe Weekends, and, most important, writes his New Leaf journal.
Since 1994, when he began his “Miracle Schedule” habit of morning writing, guitar playing, running, yoga, and language study, he’s written thousands of journal pages.

Jim writes about what he knows best–the joys and frustrations of making a living as an artist,
and the adventures of creating each day anew. His journals, which have been published in five volumes, are filled with humor, beauty, and imagination. Also a brutally honest road, it reveals his frustrations and anxietiesabout tour registrations, playing wrong notes on the guitar, aches, and worries about money. It’s also about having faith, and having fun.
A New Leaf is a compilation of the best of Jim’s published journal writings. This book is a gold mine. Jim loved writing it; I loved compiling it, and you’ll love reading it!
Carol Karels

Jim adds: “Writing my journal is the most important thing I do each day. Writing, along with my “Miracle Schedule,” remind me of the spiritual foundation of my life and put me in touch with higher forces. My journal writing centers me. It represents the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of my development through the adventures of a wandering mind. Even though I’m the author, I use it as my own guidebook to life. Perhaps it will inspire you to jump in and splash around in this pool of creativity called life. Ultimately, it’s all about having fun while following your star.

I was brought up in the Bronx in New York City. My mother was an artist. My father was a high school principal. Music, the arts, and pursuit of knowledge were their passions. I still see myself as a child, listening to the radio in our kitchen, eating Cheerios, and feeling my mind melt as I listened to the music of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky on WQXR. Stars, suns, moons, and other celestial forms passed above me. Mozart, Wienawski, Beethoven, Lalo, Bruch, Bach.Playing their music on my violin and listening to their symphonies; those were my highest moments.

The gate opened; they ushered me into a world where gods dwelt. The High School of Music and Art introduced me to music and the epiphany of sound. On violin, and later on guitar,I played other people’s music. I was their instrument—loving, willing, but instrument nonetheless.Classical music, though beautiful, was filled with restrictions— do’s and dont’s, and endless possibilities of making mistakes. How could I be free when I constantly worried about committing such a wrong-note crimeand facing the judgement of an audience?
College introduced me to the beauty and magic of the printed word. Once I read about ideas,I knew music alone wasn’t enough. Dry intellect never held me. It was the beauty of ideas, the tasty morsels of words, and the rolling language forming in my mouth, that inspired me.

During my last year at the University of Chicago, as I sat in my second floor apartment on 55th Street,I first thought of becoming a writer.  Writing had music and sound; it touched my intellect as well as my soul.Most of all, it had freedom. When I wrote, I could finally express myself.I spent a year in France, then rented a room in Greenwich Village. For the next three years, I wrote.It was the beginning of a thirty-year experiment to find the source of my creativity and the reasonI passed through states of melancholy. Why should this be, when music and the presence of others lifted me so high?Did it point to an aspect of self I didn’t quite know yet?

I discovered yoga after college, when I bought a book on it in Woodstock with a picture of a yogi standing on his head.I figured I would read it, learn yoga, and, as a joke, teach it to the guests at Chaits Hotel in the Catskills,where I worked as a social director. I taught it in the afternoons, always reading upand staying a chapter ahead of my class.To my surprise, not only did the guests like it, but I did, too.I started practicing the postures.Soon they became a habit, part of my daily routine. I liked the yoga philosophy, too. . . and the sensual quality of the asanas.

Yoga is an offshoot of my love of movement, which, as a child, was expressed in the physical exhilaration of running wild on our farm lawn before a storm or, as a teenager, playing basketball.That’s also why I teach folk dancing and run. I feel the musical highof a Beethoven symphony coursing through me.

Since I married, I’ve made my living as a performer. I created and developed my “World of Guitar” performances on college campuses nationwide in the late seventies and also began to teach folk dancing. My Jim Gold International Folk Tours company followed soon after.
Writing is my key to self-understanding. Its adventure continues to amaze me.

About Jim Gold
Jim Gold is a writer, folk dance teacher and choreographer, classical and folk guitarist, cultural-tour organizer, and founder of Jim Gold International. For decades, he has brought people together through dance, music, travel, writing, culture, and friendship. His books explore creativity, movement, humor, struggle, beauty, and the art of living fully.

Available in kindle and paperback at Amazon.com
To order click this link:
New Leaf Journal

Or contact:
Jim Gold International
jimgold@jimgold.com
(201) 836-0362

*****

Welcome to the World of Jim Gold

Discover Jim Gold’s books, international folk-dance and cultural tours, music, writing, and creative projects at www.jimgold.com