Journaling

For a few years, I wrote with a fabulous writing teacher, Lisa Garrigues author of Writing Motherhood. She hated the term 'journaling'. Every time I think of the word or actually write it, I think of her and begin to edit but this time I'm going to write it anyway. Since last July, I've been journaling off and on. More on than off actually which has been a rather large accomplishment for me. I've been filling a notebook with words of mine, quotes from others and pictures that I have cut out from magazines. I got the idea of filling a notebook from my wonderful friend Rebecca Rodskog. She called the notebook a vision journal and suggested filling it with anything that made you happy. Somehow, this opened me up to see journaling as more than just my words. I could really put anything I wanted in my notebook and by doing this I have filled more pages than I have in a long time.

This morning I looked back over some things I had written last summer at the beginning of my Vision Journal adventure. I was reminded of why I do this...

From July 9, 2010

"Two pages left blank (I had skipped two pages accidently) as if a dare from the universe. I dare you to ignore your need to journal. I dare you to give up writing. I dare you to actually do something you are good at. I just spent an hour creating a scrap book page of a trip to the ice cream store. I suppose given the fact that it was my first scrap book page it was fine but in general, the best part of it was the written part. While we sat at Ben and Jerry's, I asked the girls what their favorite ice moment was. They both said, "Right now." As I thought about this, I realized it was, in that moment, the beauty of being four and seven- the beauty of loving the now."

Note: I have since put away the pinking shears and the cute stickers and realized that my notebook and my blog are my scrap book. Phew!