Bookish Thursday - Prompt for Journaling Power by Mari L. McCarthy

Last week I reviewed McCarthy's 10th anniversary edition of Journaling Power. 

Today's post is about my experience of decades of being a person who journals. So let's get into it...

My earliest journal which I still haves, is from high school. And my trials of 'first love'. I do have to giggle whenever I read it. But it is written in a pretty blue journal, which at one time had a lock and key. I know there were probably some earlier journaling exercises, but they have been lost over time.

From high school I transitioned into reams and reams of yellow legal pads for mainly a journal my English professor required. And reams and reams of writing HUGE swathes of Ayn Rand's prose and how they meant so much to me. In his wisdom, my professor did let me know I would get over this phase in my life. 

I have written about dating or not dating, how my marriages were going or not going. Being pregnant and getting divorced. Gardening, books I've read, trips I've taken - basically life in general.

Savvy has advised me she wants to read them when I am gone. Personally, I feel she will be bored to death. 

One thing I have discovered in recent years is when I sat down to write about my childhood and what I can remember (which apparently is a lot) about my parents and extended family. What came out of what I have written so far is understanding what my parents did or didn't do as I was growing up. It made me understand some things so much better. Doesn't make them any better, but it does give me a different perspective on how they were brought up and how it translated to being parents. And how the 8 years difference between me and my younger sister were so very different (in my point of view).

I get up almost every morning and sit down and write even a couple of sentences. Every now and then I sit down and throw in a separate notebook, all the bits and bobs of 'stuff' I have set aside. And I write about all the things this 'stuff' means - what I did, where I went, etc. 

Sometimes it is the feeling of a new pen on paper which makes me want to journal. Sometimes it's a rainy day - a sunny day - a favorite meal - that has me putting pen to paper. 

Regardless of your reason, whether it be for physical health or mental health, journaling is beneficial. It also helps when you do need to revisit the past about an event which happened and you want to view it from a distance. 

In other words - just journal! Even if it is nothing but recording the daily temperature.