Journalling

I write in my journal every night and have for at least 4 years. It's not a private journal--DP and I used to do it together, deciding what to include from the day together while I acted as scribe but now I do it mostly on my own, with her reminding me of things to include. It's a record of the days events--important events in our lives like births, deaths, and first steps, and things we want to remember like funny episodes with the kids. It's a day book, so each day's entry is exactly one page. I first picked up the format while researching my dissertation and reading the journals of one of the directors of the National Gallery; I had also picked up a journal of an anonymous lady who liked to draw little pictures. I've drawn several little pictures over the years, mainly of cats in odd positions. If some researcher were to pick up my journals in centuries to come they would note several things: a). my handwriting is miserable and unintelligible at times; b). I rarely reference current events, despite trying to keep up with them, unless it's big--I noted hurricane Katrina, the death of Heath Ledger, and similar events (I wasn't keeping these journals around September 11, 2001, but did then create a journal about that to think through the event and my experiences of it--I was in the city, DP was downtown, and Goo her brother was there); c) that I am an art historian not an artist and that I can't draw; and d). that I'm not a reflective person, because the entries are more a record of events than my long thoughts on them--now I cross-reference my blog entries in my journal, as I do more thought-out writing here. I guess that shows the limitations of drawing inferences from journals.

Anyway, I'm going to start doing a bit of more intense journalling here in my blog. I had wanted to take a "Parents as Spiritual Guides" course at church but it was cancelled, so I'm going to work through the topics here, to "journal" in the way many people mean, i.e. reflective thinking on a specific topic. The first topic will be my definition of spirituality and what we want to convey to our children. I'm still mulling this over and am not ready to write yet. That, and I'm having computer trouble and can't blog for long at any given time because of a battery failure. My other topic for journalling here will be drawn from the pages of Wonder Time. In each issue, there is an "instant scrapbook" page that asks questions about the kiddos. I'm going to answer those here each month. I'm several months behind but I figure I can catch up. I love answering questions and always enjoy those emails that ask your favorites. I might even do one of those here.

But not right now because my battery warning is blinking . . . I'll need to remember to put that in my "real" journal tonight.