A former student of mine, shared with me that her mother would often throw away her journals when she found them. She said her mother thought keeping a journal was a frivolous act, and she could be doing something more productive, more important.
Journals are the company I keep. They are spaces for collecting, expressing, building ideas. They allow the sketching of remnants from a dream, map out the spilled words from a meeting, collage found text and image, keep memories. Journals also allow us to try on new ideas before sharing them, or keep those ideas near, if we choose not to share. Whether paper or digital, journals can travel with us or lie beside our bed, on-call at all hours of the day and night. Keeping a journal is actively engaging with ideas, the ones spinning in our heads, drizzling from our fingertips, warm in our hearts. Journals keep us.
Do you keep a journal? What’s inside?
words
memories
recipes
ideas
sketches
names of characters
places you dream of traveling to
notes
directions
quotes
drafts
writing
photographs
titles of books you want to read
music: the names of songs, artists
to-do lists
Or maybe something else?
Dionne
Thanks for the reminder of the importance of writing in my journal everyday!!!!!
Les
Yes, yes, try to add something everyday…it’s good practice. Love that you’re reading the blog. Nice to have you back! :)