I love to give them as gifts. I love to buy them as gifts and then keep them (hangs head in shame). Blogs are great. Video journals are great (although hell no!). I get it. The digital age is here. But I'll continue to cling to my journals as long as they'll continue to make them.
And now for my journaler's confession:
I don't write in them logically. I don't start on page one and write in that same journal until I reach the last page. Instead I write in whichever one happens to speak to me when I'm ready to write or the one that I grab when I'm packing a bag or that I find in a really weird place (sometimes at a really weird moment). Sometimes I just write in whichever one is within reach. They are stashed all over my house. And in my purse. And in my truck.
The result? Really random collections of writing.
The journal that I took to the writing response group I attended a few weeks ago ended with a page dated 2004. So that is the jump. One page is dated July 9, 2004, and the next is July 4, 2019.
But wait. There's more.
I don't go page to page either (my apologies to the organized brains of the world). I mean, sometimes I write on the very next blank page, but I'm just as likely to open to a random page and start writing. So that same "Metaphors Be With You" journal that jumps from 2004 to 2019 has several months of entries from 2011 buried in there as well.
I don't remember reading back through my journals before. I keep them. I'm sure I've lost many over the years, but for the most part, I keep them. As I am working on my writing about Mema, I've been going through them to transcribe some of those stories. It has been a wonderful experience, and I have come across some really helpful writing, but my favorite entries from today's excavation are from my first summer with the Greater Houston Area Writing Project.
There are lots of lists, writing ideas, and brainstorming shenanigans. We did a lot of that. And many of the pages are titled the name of the reading selection to which I was responding. I love both of these practices, both as a writer and as a teacher. Brainstorming and reader response. They're good for the brain and good for the heart.
Here are two of my favorites of those I read today:
July 7, 2006
Where Writing Hides
In Shipley's chocolate icing
In Ryan's baseball glove
In Aggie's wagging tail
In my daddy's smile
In a guilt trip from my mother
In a dancing flower
In an overturned chair
In a roll of dollar bills
In a missing groundhog
In The Very Merry Cricket
In six tooth treasure boxes
July 19, 2006
*written on a Post-It note in response to a reading of The Giving Tree
I love a little boy too, and he can turn leaves to crowns and frowns to smiles and moments to memories.
Final Thoughts:
A missing groundhog? Huh?
I still love The Very Merry Cricket.
I texted a picture of that Post-It to my 23 year-old son. He sent the perfect reply. I love you.
And more on that dancing flower later.
No comments:
Post a Comment