Journaling

Do you own a diary?  Maybe instead, you refer to yours as a personal journal.  Whatever you call it, I bet if you do it’s something you hold near and dear and quite possibly even keep under lock and key if you’re the private type.  Or if your personality tends to be more social and interactive, then online journaling or blogging may be your way of expressing, logging and sharing memories.  I know some people who are serious into photo journaling.  That isn’t something I’m very good at yet but I hope to be someday.

Last week I mentioned that I was involved in a few projects I wanted to share with you.  One of them, an online course with Karen Walrond, has taken me down the path of daily journaling.   It’s requiring me to write, draw and reflect all while allowing me to doodle and make lists too!  Fun stuff.  Anyway, I thought I would share with you a little bit of new-found insight and resources I have come across during the past week since starting the class.

First let me say that journaling isn’t something that’s new to me.  I have been writing down my thoughts as far back as I can remember.  And yes, I was one of those extremely private, under lock and key, kind of gals.  As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become less guarded.  In fact last night I was reading an entry out of my new Path Finder journal to Mark.  Pretty brave if you ask me.

While I was pregnant with Jake I bought a special lined journal to write in it, letters from me to him.   It would become a more personalized baby book of sorts.  I have done the same with Cole and Claire by choosing journals that I felt would represent me and how I felt about being pregnant with each of them at the time.  My goal was to have a book of their youth from my perspective.  Telling them what they were like, how I was feeling, events that were going on around them and the family happenings.  There is no pressure to add entries.  It’s a write at will agreement I made with myself.  I knew I wouldn’t have a ton of free time to be logging a daily entry with a newborn.  Plus, I wanted the desire to write to come naturally, not forced.

Choosing a journal or place to store and possibly share is so personal.  If your journal style is more artistic, then blank pages may be a requirement along with special pens and markers.  Travelers who journal may favor leather bound smaller books to throw into their bags and carry with them on their journeys.  I bet they like it to have pockets too for stuffing all the treasures found along the way, like maps and cards.

I suppose at this point in time I have not only a paper book style journal for my writing and art, but also online here with TerraSavvy along with photo streams with Picasa, Flickr and iPhoto.  Add Instagram and Twitter and you can be all over the place with what’s going on in your world at any given moment.  Sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming to keep track of all my saved moments and I’ve learned to back up my drives and print out precious pictures.

How do you keep track?  Are you super efficient and have a system that looks like a library (I would be secretly envious)?  Is your baby book empty and photo albums blank?  Or maybe you’re somewhere in the middle like me with a bit of organized chaos of the people and places in my life.

I have come across some interesting books and tools that you may find helpful too.

• Wreck This Journal
• The 1000 Journals Project
• The if you like to list  journal.
• Currently writing in these.
• Add artwork.
• Writing tools organized – check!

These days there are plenty of choices available for capturing a moment in time or a lifetime of moments.  Just make sure you aren’t forgetting to be in those moments while capturing them!

Live Well

photo via Flickr, photo via Art-Slam

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