Happy Good Friday, April 10!
I was awake pretty early this morning, with a need to dive into some serious writing. Have you noticed there are times you need a variety of tools for the different needs in expressing yourself? Sometimes I journal with pen and paper, other times I'm typing on my keyboard, and often, I also dictate experiences and insights.
Today I started with pen and paper. It evolved to some dictation and then I moved to typing.
I've been working on some writing for two classes, as well as typing up some of the journals I found, including one from way back in 1983.
The weather has been super conducive for this effort, too - there were little snowflakes earlier that have turned into raindrops at this point...really, it feels like a cup-of-tea journaling kind of day.
And reading back through each diary and journal is such a terrific opportunity for self-reflection! How have I changed? What would I do differently now? How did that experience help me grow? Are there still unresolved emotions surfacing?
There are times when I wish I had written more than just the list of my daily accomplishments. I want to remember what I was feeling then since I believe I have greater emotional clarity now. And still - there are times when I surprise myself reading an insight I had written about and wonder how I could have been so wise way back then. Other times I laugh at how naive I was...
Do you have a journal? Have you reread anything you've written in the past? Have you considered keeping one, choosing some way to document this quarantine/retreat experience? Perhaps you are choosing a different creative outlet?
I think about the Diary of Anne Frank and wonder if she would have written it, had she known it would be read by so many people...and I am so grateful she did. Her personal narrative and experience give such powerful insight into her frame of mind, during that time period.
So maybe - write a paragraph. Start small. Start today...