I don't keep a journal. I never have. I've tried many many times but just never had the discipline to write personal things on a regular basis. However, because I like to read friends always think I like to write. Which I don't really. But I had a small stack of journals that had been given to me as gifts. Have you ever gone into a bookstore and looked at the journals? They always have such great covers. It does make you want to buy one. But then, what to do with it. Well believe it or not :) I've found a use for my journals.
The first one is a navy blue one that Holly gave me for Christmas one year. She was on a very limited budget found a fairly plain journal, typed up wonderful quotes, printed them off and stuck them on pages throughout the journal. Very clever idea and I wanted to use the journal because it was so clever. So on January 1, 2005, I started keeping a list of every book I read. I would put the title, the author, the month and I started "staring" them. 1 through 5 - with 5 being the best. Then as time went on, if I read a particularly meaningful book, I would write a couple of sentences about the book. Then more time went on and I started writing important things that had happened in our family. Well on January 1, 2010 I had to start the second book list journal. From 01-01-2005 until 12-31-2009 I had read approximately 475 books. I say approximately because in 2009 I got bogged down in life and would forget to write titles down.
Okay, so then once about 4 years ago, I read a fiction book about a woman that constantly made lists. Not to-do lists like we all do sometimes but lists of 10 things. Shelley - my daughter-in-law gave me a beautiful pink journal. So I started a journal of lists. Here's an example of some of my lists: 10 Things to do on Saturdays; 10 Things I accomplished in 2007; 10 Reasons I love my church; - on the eve of my Mother-in-laws funeral I made a list - 10 things I loved about Anne, the next evening I made a list - 10 things I liked about Anne's funeral; 10 Places I want to visit; recently I added a list with no numbers - Men I've dated since my divorce. ( this of course is a SHORT list!!) I have had much fun with this journal. I have probably about 50 lists in this book! Some fun, some sad.
I had received another journal from a friend Sandra for Christmas in 2007. I had been reading the Mitford books and got this idea from Jan Karon - I started writing quotes in it. I love quotes and so this one has been particularly fun for me. There are too many for me to list all my favorites but my friend Jim has given me 2 favorites from his Dad: "Honesty is like pregnancy - you either are or you ain't". The other is "Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment". From The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Juliet says "Naturally curly hair is a curse, and don't ever let anyone tell you different." That is one of my personal favorites!
I love my journals. I never thought a few years ago that I would ever say anything positive about journals - but I really do love my journals!
