Why Journal?

I mentioned in my last post that I had found a journal that my dad had written while my mom was expecting me.

This past Sunday I was at my mom’s house and mentioned that I had read through dad’s expectant father journal. My mom said, ‘I kept one too!’. And yes, I did remember that and knew I had it at home, so last night I read through it. It was considerably shorter than the one my dad had written, in fact, it was more like, ‘I’m pregnant!’, a couple entries then, ‘I’m a mom!’. 🙂 No matter how short it was, it was still very meaningful and special to me. You could feel her excitement through the pages.

Not all of us are writers, and that’s ok. Not all of us keep journals, and that’s ok too. The world needs all sorts of people!

My mom kept her expectant mother journal in a 70’s looking (Ah, well…it really was the 70’s) hard back blank book, complete with the title ‘Diary of a Happy Housewife’ on the front cover with a cartoony-looking girl on the front in an apron and frying pan. I love it!

The diary also has a dust jack and on the inner flap of the jacket it has ideas on how to use the happy housewife diary. You know, marketing. Why should I use this journal? Why do I need a blank book? As I was reading the ideas they outlined, I really loved how they phrased them and wished I had written it (Ha!), but thought that I would share them with you.

Why use a blank journal or book? Why keep a daily diary?

In the words of a copywriter from the Abbey Press over forty years ago, here are some great reasons:

• A permanent book for your own thoughts, memories, dreams and ideas
• A diary to keep a lasting record of the days of your life
• A journal to gain perspective on experience by articulating the what and the why of life
• A book of creative writing – a beautiful and appropriate volume for your fiction and poetry
• A collage of creativity, combining drawings and texts in a multi-media expression of your inspiratons (Left hand pages are blank for sketching, right hand pages are ruled to aid writing)
• A commonplace book of insights, personal visions and imagined utopias
• A memory book for photographys, flower pressings and nostaliga of all kinds
• A meditation guide to record your journeys into the very center of yourself
• A celebration book to celebrate and nourish your own uniqueness
• A joy book for your great experiences and happy moments
• An adventure into your self

Isn’t that fun? Doesn’t that make you want to write?

‘…imagined utopias…’!

It makes my heart happy. 🙂