In recent years, I have regretted that I do not and did not keep a journal on a regular basis. Something my son could have down the road. Something that recorded how I felt when he got his teeth knocked out with a hockey stick five days before First Communion…and I had been unhappy with the pictures that were taken and I was planning to have re-takes done. Original pictures were fine once I there were no teeth and bloody, swollen lips. Or how I felt when he was in a serious bicycle accident requiring several plastic surgeries – on his face – just before Confirmation. Or how I felt when he won the Rim Rock XC Meet in Kansas in 2005…I could see him in the distance and heard his name over the loud speaker…I could have recorded those feelings when they were fresh in my mind, but I didn’t. A journal that would have recorded what I made for dinner on a Thursday afternoon in 1999. A journal that captured my thoughts, my deeds, my feelings, things that right now do not seem to matter, but years from now might be precious. One of my favorite things is an e-mail I received from my mother last year…she shared how when I was a baby and my dad was stationed at Ft. Ord, California, she used to take me to the ocean and we would have a picnic…just the two of us. My mother has shared several things like that with me in the last few months…each of them precious to me. This is beautifully written. Maybe I will not journal regularly, but I hope I start to do it a little more often.
Lord, thank you for the times in my life when you were so obviously there…and thank you for the times in my life when I wondered where you were. Yes, I know who moved and I know you were there, close by, but sin in my life kept me from seeing and feeling your presence. Help me to recognize the opportunity to begin anew. As Lent approaches help me to find peace in your will. Please guide me so that I know the path my life should take. Please bless my family, Lord. Keep them safe and guide them.
Do you journal? Do you scrapbook? In my opinion, scrapbooking is a form of journaling.
Have a blessed day….
I have a poetry journal that takes a walk through my life in poems. I am shocked when I look back and read my poetry from the years when I was away from the Church, but I keep these poems as a reminder of where I've been and as a warning not to return there:) Thank you for the link, it was great and I added it to my sidebar. My blog list is getting unwieldy but that's okay because I plan to transfer them all to a site called "Utterly Thine", which is going to be a blogroll. Whenever I find a beautiful blog I follow it so that [when I can scrape up the time] I can put it on the blogroll. The blogroll is in reparation for the sins committed on the internet so I hope I can find the time to start working on it. I thought it would be a good place for Christians to find Spirit inspired blogs.
Journaling is such an awesome thing! I'm going to go check out that site now. Thanks!