Hookie — Part 1 (The Perfect Journal)
Lisa over at Lisa Writes encouraged me to journal. I used to journal every day.
Now I blog.
But I imagine that God misses my scrawl. Journaling = praying (for me). Back in the Old Testament they built altars. Today, I build a cup of chai, sit on my brown couch, wish my dog could snuggle next to me, and take my pen to a piece of paper . . . well a perfect journal.
If you think I have random disjointed thoughts when I write, imagine what my brain is like when it isn’t under the discipline of a pen and paper to pray!
Let me set the scene . . . right now.
This is my journal. I am pretty particular about my journals. I can and do have 10 perfectly fine journals, but they don’t meet my qualifications.
First and formeost said journal must be inviting. It needs to look like it contains history. The outside, preferably leather, must (hold on, I am stroking my journal for the right word) be like French Silk Pie to the fingertips but smell like far away places. When my cracked hands (from multiple hand washings due to the changing of a boy in diapers) open the written word of my brain, the pages are almost required to show that others have trod where I am about to (meaning that I want the pages to be soft and look handcrafted). As I use the PERFECT pen (worthy of a blog post in itself), I want the pressure of my reflections to leave an engraving on the opposite side of the page, essentially mingling my thoughts forming who I am at that present moment. My legacy of life experiences need to fit into a small journal that can easily bend like I am learning to do with my lethargic body in P90X. And lastly, I don’t want a lock and key. I want a rope. Not only does the rope mark the current page I am writing, but as I finish each entry and the book is shut, I want to feel like I am writing about unchartered travles, almost like I am a pirate . . . without a patch or a hook.
To make the journal perfect . . . it must come from my husband.
And I completely got sidetracted.
I was going to tell you how Lisa promted me to write in my journal and as a result I played hookie from church while still at church.
That will have to be a story for another day.
I just started journaling. I am journaling about contenetment right now, and not doiong very good at it. but at least I am trying.
A friend mentioned the other day how they say our record of history is changing.. In that, one used to go to the attic to find the letters and momentos of previous generations (which leads to another topic of multi-generations living in the same house perhaps) … but now many people blog and email. So when the hard-drive fails or the blog site is gone, so are the records of our days. Make sense??
Somehow blogging is easier — I guess it's less messy than scrapbooking for sure — easy to add photos to speak for us (and maybe that's even a lame crutch?). But my friend suggested a spiral notebook (ack) filled with random thoughts was better than a long-lost blog.
Do you find time for both worlds?? (pen/paper and computer)
Don't mean to be a downer — just thinking out loud and wondering how it strikes you?
I journal/pray too! If I don't, my mind wanders as I pray … first I'm praying for someone and suddenly I've rabbit-trailed to making a grocery list or remembering some long ago event OR the other option is I fall asleep. So I write my prayers – it keeps me focused. I also keep a smaller journal where I can list my prayer requests and write down answers to prayer or blessings I want to remember. I love your journal – all french-silky soft & leathery & far-away-place smelling!
I'm dying to know about the part I played!!! 🙂
I'm attempting to resurrect my own journaling practice as I try to jot down prayers and thoughts corresponding to my daily Bible reading. It's a good discipline, one I think I desperately need here at this point in my journey.