"The journals are a way of finding out where I really am…They are not dependant on the muse…They sort of make me feel that the fabric of my life has a meaning. What often seems fairly meaningless, like weeding a patch in the garden, when I write it into the journal, it sort of becomes something else." – May Sarton
One of many of May Sarton's quotes about keeping journals. She's so right.
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| Some of my old journals |
How does journaling affect your everyday life?
6 comments:
Journal allows me to carbon copy what is in my heart and mind. It allows me to speak to and hear myself. It helps me make sense of what is. Journalling always calms me, allows me to feel ignited, inspired, focused and heard. Journalling is the connection of my soul to my creator. I have been journalling now for approximately 13 years. Those journals are the portals to my heart and mind. I would save them in a fire before clothing. That's how significant they are to me.
That was a quick response! Thanks so much for sharing your relationship with journals.
Journaling allows me to carbon copy what is in my heart and mind. Unusual indeed but I get it. Journals before clothes? Resonates with me.
I don't journal about life in general, but keep to-do list journals, and writing project journals. And the result is the same ... those small, seemingly insignificant writing tasks that I write down to-do all amount to who I am, basically, and are the sum total of a novel, or blog post, or memoir ...
Joanne,
You touched on an aspect of journaling that some people don't see. They may say that they journal about this and that, they rant and rave, the plan and brainstorm. But what they write/journal is the essence of who they are, what they do, how they live and what they dream.
I love May Sarton's memoirs, many of which were drawn from her journals. I keep journals sporadically -- and wish I could be more disciplined. Because I have written weekly newspaper columns, then blogs, for so many years, I find it hard to write in a journal consistently. I get most of it out of my system in the columns. But as Natalie Goldberg tells us, writing by hand is entirely different and very good for all of us ...Thanks for the reminders.
Cindy,
May Sarton's journals revolutionized my own journal ritual. She inspired me not only to be more aware and appreciative of the weather and birds and plants, but to write about them.
I've read her Journal of a Solitude and House by the Sea several times and some months ago, read her Plant Dreaming Deep (a treasured gift from Jan Lundy - a kindred May Sarton fan).
For me, writing by hand is therapy, a joy and a luxury.
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