to journal

Almost every morning, after I've fed the fur-kids and settled them, I sit down with my journal to explore what I need to express and get out. Earlier this week, my 15-year-old niece had posted on fb that there was so much she wished she could say, yet, like many today, and especially teenagers, finding focus and space are challenging. I reminded her that, even if she couldn't speak the words aloud, to at least find time to write them...write and express all that she wished she could say so that it didn't fester within.

I have been writing in a diary or journal since Dad gave me an elegant blue velvet diary the Christmas when I was in third grade. From that moment on, although not always regularly, I have expressed myself through the written word more often, and received more comfort from the practice, than via talking to other people. For some reason, I feel like when I'm writing, the listening is far more powerful.

For the past year or so, ever since reading "The Artist's Way", I have taken my journaling to a different level through my Morning Pages -- the three pages I write as "brain drain" and to explore or express or expel from my cells that which might congest. Sometimes it is stream of consciousness, at others mundane tasks ahead of me, or conscious reflection upon an experience, but the experience, the practice, is always beneficial. And by having a tiny bit of structure to the practice, i.e. three pages, I build focus in spite of any distractions that come up during the writing (which easily happens living with four dogs and four cats!).

I thought when I began this blog that I would use it also as a 'practice', however, typing is not the same for me as handwriting and so I generally express through my journal, and then share only trickles of life or thought on this blog rather than the full stream. And that's okay. This blog is a condensed version! Further, while I do have the occasional 'dark day' in my journal, I choose not to share those thoughts publicly, although I know that many others do so. I would rather bring the Light of my Life out into the world, while the Dark is processed more privately...for now.

Indeed, this blog is merely representative of my Light in firefly form...out there whether others see the glimmers or maybe not, yet nevertheless the Light shines just as bright. And this is true in life as form as well; we do not always know how our lives affect others.

Tagore says even "the stars are not afraid to appear like fireflies"...