A lifetime of journal writing

I am beginning to discover that there are a few other strange people out there a bit like me.

Quite a few in fact.

Strange, because they, too, are compulsive journal writers.

It seems that once bitten most people are journal writers for life. I have written in my journal off and on for 16 years. I just checked – seems longer. Originally I wrote in lovely hard cover books. In more recent years I have used my laptop exclusively. One day I might even print it all out.

Some people, it seems, write daily. They must be very disciplined, and have lots of time. I’m still working on both discipline and the use of time. I recently came across an essay written by someone who examines the philosophy behind journal writing.

The essay is called Meditations on 25 Years of Journal Writing written by Kimble James Greenwood. This particular journal writer has the bug quite seriously, writing in a multitude of forms.

As I grew older and the process continued, the journals themselves split off and diversified, specialized—so that my main journal, the “personal journal”, was now accompanied by adjuncts: poetry journals, dream journals, fiction journals, quote journals, journals to list memories in, to list books read, movies seen, vocabulary lists, curious gleanings from newspapers and magazines, etc.

I must admit that my journal was a ‘one size fits all’ type. It was at first a record of events. Soon it developed into reflections on life, experiences, comments on events, poetry, snippets of life, cuttings, quotes from books, poems, sermons, scripture and friends. It was like life itself: unplanned, random and meandering.