Do you journal? Journaling is putting your thoughts and feelings down on paper. In the past few years, journaling and scrap booking have become the rage. You can find all types of journals in card stores, Christian bookstores, and stores that specialize in stationary. There are guided journals which lead you in jotting down your inner most thoughts and there are open ended journals which allow you to free flow your thoughts. Whatever journal chosen, you can believe it can be beautiful or plain but it is meant to achieve the same thing. You getting to a place to feel comfortable enough to express yourself freely. A place to dream, and hope and sometimes to lament.
I love buying journals despite my reluctance to actually jot my thoughts down. My friends encouraged me to write often but despite the fact that I know writing is one of my many callings, I had the hardest time actually putting pen to paper and expressing anything. Not that I didn't have opinions or things to hope for and dream about, I just hated to feel committed to doing it. I wondered who would read the things in later years? What assumptions would they make about me, the writer? I felt like if I started, I had to be committed to doing it daily. I thought my words had to be politically correct. I thought everything I wrote had to have significance and purpose. So, I collected journals but did not write in them. Silly, huh? Yea, I agree.
One day I read a devotional that pretty much articulated all the things I was feeling about journaling. The author was all in my head thinking exactly like me. I had to laugh because I wasn't alone. What she did for me was to me to let go of my preconceived notions about journaling and just start to write about whatever, whenever.
I decided to term it "the un-journal journal." There are pages where I doodled instead of writing. There are pages where I made lists of my favorite things long before Facebook was even a reality. Some of those lists include my favorite ice cream flavors, my favorite love songs, and my house must haves and everything in between. When in doubt, there are lists of the things that I am thankful for on that particular day. There are poems and inspirational quotes. There are lists of Internet sites that I think might be of interest gleaned from news shows, magazines, and conversations with my friends. In other words, it is whatever I want it to be at the moment I choose to put my pen to my paper.
So if you are at all like me, free yourself. Be unconventional! Pick up a journal and just go for it. Sometimes you will want to write, out of anger frustration or happiness. Sometimes you won't. In the moments that you have nothing to say make a list of things you like or places you want to go. Express what you are thankful for at that moment. Chances are once yo free yourself of the burden of having to express yourself, you just might find that you have quite a bit to say. Next thing you know, you will be blogging. :) Okay, maybe not but honestly, you never know. Get busy. Then share with me your journaling journey. Perhaps it will look like mine and perhaps it won't but it will be a true expression of you. Peace and Love!
Copyright October 27, 2009 by Pamela Cole Thorpe
I love buying journals despite my reluctance to actually jot my thoughts down. My friends encouraged me to write often but despite the fact that I know writing is one of my many callings, I had the hardest time actually putting pen to paper and expressing anything. Not that I didn't have opinions or things to hope for and dream about, I just hated to feel committed to doing it. I wondered who would read the things in later years? What assumptions would they make about me, the writer? I felt like if I started, I had to be committed to doing it daily. I thought my words had to be politically correct. I thought everything I wrote had to have significance and purpose. So, I collected journals but did not write in them. Silly, huh? Yea, I agree.
One day I read a devotional that pretty much articulated all the things I was feeling about journaling. The author was all in my head thinking exactly like me. I had to laugh because I wasn't alone. What she did for me was to me to let go of my preconceived notions about journaling and just start to write about whatever, whenever.
I decided to term it "the un-journal journal." There are pages where I doodled instead of writing. There are pages where I made lists of my favorite things long before Facebook was even a reality. Some of those lists include my favorite ice cream flavors, my favorite love songs, and my house must haves and everything in between. When in doubt, there are lists of the things that I am thankful for on that particular day. There are poems and inspirational quotes. There are lists of Internet sites that I think might be of interest gleaned from news shows, magazines, and conversations with my friends. In other words, it is whatever I want it to be at the moment I choose to put my pen to my paper.
So if you are at all like me, free yourself. Be unconventional! Pick up a journal and just go for it. Sometimes you will want to write, out of anger frustration or happiness. Sometimes you won't. In the moments that you have nothing to say make a list of things you like or places you want to go. Express what you are thankful for at that moment. Chances are once yo free yourself of the burden of having to express yourself, you just might find that you have quite a bit to say. Next thing you know, you will be blogging. :) Okay, maybe not but honestly, you never know. Get busy. Then share with me your journaling journey. Perhaps it will look like mine and perhaps it won't but it will be a true expression of you. Peace and Love!
Copyright October 27, 2009 by Pamela Cole Thorpe
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