Do You Keep A Journal?

[SJRod55]

How many of you keep a journal? Whether this is a written book, a tape or even a web blog... do you keep a journal and what type of things do you record? Is it open to family members or closed until the day you die!!!

Oprah Winfrey said:

[quote]Keep a grateful journal. Every night list five things that you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is change your perspective of your day and your life.[/quote]

I wish I had the self discipline to do so, but alas I am not a regular journal writer. I once had a great journal on my laptop but it crached after 3 years and I became so discouraged I never restarted.

How about you?



It is quite facinating to see how many people 'read' the polls compared to how many actually 'vote.'

Edited February 2, 2007 by Rod

[homeschoolmom]

I voted....I had a 3-year diary in jr. high school.... I used to keep a regular journal in college (In a spiral notebook)... I kept one for my first pregnancy (written as letters to my baby)... I have a note book in which I write the funny things my kids say... and I have a private blog... (because I can't see the point of having a personal diary that everyone can read....) But I don't write in it all that often.

[franciscanheart]

I keep up with mine as time permits. I have a blog but do not share everything there. My journal is much more personal.

[Knight of the Holy Rosary]

I used to write in one daily when I was little kid. I plan to start a new one, as my discernment leads me to seminary.

[Era Might]

I keep a sort of journal, it's a scrapbook of notable newspaper clippings. Usually headlines or things that are relevant to me. I think it'll be cool a couple decades from now to look back and see everything I've lived through. I heard a saying once to the effect of show me the headlines during a man's lifetime, and I'll tell you what kind of man he was.

[Sojourner]

I have a blog that I update almost daily. Because it's public, I don't have as much personal stuff on it as I might in an actual journal, but I think if I were to look back over it it would serve to jog my memory.

I'm saving it for my memoirs later.

[Tindomiel]

[quote name='hugheyforlife' post='1182978' date='Feb 2 2007, 10:38 AM']
I keep up with mine as time permits. I have a blog but do not share everything there. My journal is much more personal.
[/quote]
That's what I do.

[Lil Red]

i love the idea of keeping a journal, but alas, i stink at it! :

[Fidei Defensor]

I wish I did. But every day, everytime I have a worry, something that angers me, makes me jealous or sad, I just write it down on a piece of paper. And at the end of the day, I lock it away.

It seems to help me let go of problems and put them out of mind.

[avemaria40]

I'm better with my blog than with my journal.

[Noel's angel]

Yup, a nice leather-bound book. I only started after much persuasion from a good friend. I'm glad I started keeping it. You get to know yourself better-what things evoke certain emotions, etc.

[Piccoli Fiori JMJ]

I have never been able to keep a journal. I have several of them that I started and would sporadically pick up to write in and then loose. Then I just get a new one and start again. I don't think I have every really gotten past at least a months worth series of entries in one book. I have trouble with keeping journals even for art classes. I never remember to write things down or I just get lost in the day or something else I am doing.
I would love to be able to actually keep a journal, but I just am not able to do so!

[Chiquitunga]

No, I choose to not take a journal. I used to in HS and tried to always keep up with it. But then after I started feeling called to religious life, I was writing for a time, but then after reading what St. Therese said to one of her novices about keeping a journal as a nun, I decided I wouldn't either ... St. Therese just wrote her autobiography under obedience, but she was against doing this on her own, but said rather, it is better for a nun to recall in her mind the graces God had given her than to write it down on paper ..

But really, I think writing in a journal can be very good and helpful for one's life, so I don't mean to speak too negatively about it here .. I just decided not to .. But actually I have found looking over past journals helpful to remind myself of God's Providence and so on .. :j

Edited February 3, 2007 by Margaret Clare

[SJRod55]

It is wonderful to read your comments on this. I wish I had the self discipline to write one as I remember reading those of some 'famous' and 'not so famous' people in school and how much we can learn from 'every day life' see through the eyes of the average person. Perhaps our blogs will become our contribution to history.

[morostheos]

I have 3 journals if you count my blog. The blog is mainly a way to keep in touch with friends and family, then I have a journal on my computer and several different things I write in to journal (I count them as one - it just depends what I have handy when I want to write down some thoughts). I'm pretty addicted to journaling, although it's not as much about what I do as what I'm thinking about. From time to time I write about things I've done, but that seems to get tedious for me if I do it at length. Most of my journal writing is really a dialogue with God, I find it helps me stay focused, and then I can also look back and see how God has been acting in my life (usually I don't realize it at all when I'm writing something, but later it is very clear).