Keeping Anything, as a Part of You

       Since I've sort of been breaking my standard format for a few weeks, I figured I might as well go with something a bit different, again. I was reading some things about journaling, and one idea came to my mind that caught my attention. So, I thought I'd share it, because sometimes my readers let me know that my random thoughts are just what they needed to read. So I try to trust my "instincts".

        Intermittently throughout my life I have been a journaler, and have a number of volumes collected from the time I was about ten years old, to the present.  My first was a little, plastic-over-foam-covered diary with little loops in the soft plastic which allowed for a little lock to be placed on it.  My mother gave me the diary, and told me it was a very special, very private place wherein I could keep all my thoughts, feelings and secrets.  I've only looked back into that little book once, as an adult, and the picture my words painted of the child I was illuminated a huge part of me that I have taken with me and added to my ability to have empathy for others.  It also left with me a very tender memory of my mother and her love for me, which I treasure.

        As I was reading these things about journaling, and what it can be and mean, this idea came to me and it struck me as something I've not done in a while.  For the last, few volumes, most of mine have been record keeping of facets of my health, such as my dietary restriction records and pain management tracking.  But it has been a long time since I remembered to journal something like this:

You can write about anything.  Write about someone you saw when you were out and about.

It doesn't have to be anyone you know. Try to include something nice.

Well, okay then.  I will.  The first that comes to mind:

        A few years ago, in the winter time, we were driving along one of the busier roads in town, and through a section where there are a number of houses with their sloping, snow-covered, front lawns facing the street.  I happened to look over at them, my eye having been caught by a flash of bright color in the otherwise gray and white scene, to find a little girl playing, alone.  My first instinct was one of slight panic, my internal "Mother Hen" at the ready, because she couldn't have been more than 4 or 5, and she was there, playing on a snowy slope which led right down into a busy road!  

        But as I watched her a moment, moving past, I realized what she was doing.  She had made a tiny snowman, in rather great detail, despite its petite size and her young age.  She was standing a few feet away from it, just gazing at it.  I believe she was contemplating whether or not her little masterpiece was finished, because after a moment she stepped toward it, leaned over, and patted its little head, affectionately!  Naturally, I couldn't help but smile!

        Having shared that, I want to mention that it doesn't need to be written like that; in fact, my journal entries telling about things going on tend to be much different.  Yours can be more simple, or more grand and detailed.  It isn't so much the style and content, as much as the ability to share something that means something to you.  Nobody need read it, even.  It's just an opportunity to place some part of you into a form outside of yourself.

        In explanation of my style of writing, I had an extensive set of opportunities to learn how to do creative and analytical writing when I was growing up, so that tends to be where my mind goes.  I remember having an assignment made into a contest to see who could come up with the most descriptive piece to a sentence discussing the greasiness of the hamburger at a certain chain of restaurant - which I won! (Oh that was such a disgusting homework report day!)

        However, just because I write one way, doesn't make it the "right" way.  I've read many styles of things that are just as valid, and wonderful!  Your writing doesn't have to be one way or another - it doesn't even have to be consistent! - but just doing it is the important part.  It can be very cathartic and healing, sometimes.  I have found sometimes when I start writing in my journal, I end up writing things I had no idea were in there, and it gives me a much deeper perspective of myself and my situations.  It is a great way to be a good friend to yourself, too!

        Okay, this post was a little different, and I'm hoping it is valuable to someone.  I never know!  But either way, it's here, and felt good to write, and that is reason enough.  Just like any entry, in any journal, by anyone!  Celebrate your life!

        Better days ahead, my friends!