Lest you think I have only "A Journal," let me share with you the varieties of journals that I may be keeping at one time. Just as some people have several books that they are reading at one time, I am writing in several journal formats at any point in time for different purposes. Let me count the ways.
1. Morning Pages Journal: Always, there is one primary "morning pages" Journal into which I enter anything from 1 to 3 pages most mornings. At the moment, I’m using a 9 x 12 sketchbook. No lines. Just blank pages.
2. Conferences and meetings notebook journal book, I keep one journal book that I take to conferences for notetaking my thoughts and observations about the conference material as well as other thoughts that crossed my mind in the middle of a meeting. The current Conference Journal is a 7 x 10 spiral bound notebook which has the added benefit of having lined pages on the left side and a blank page on the right side. That allows for organized notetaking as well as diagrams, doodles, and Zentangle art.
3. Waiting Room Journal: Yes, an elegant moleskin, with high quality paper, a gift from a dear friend, serves this purpose. This 5 x 7 notebook travels with me to waiting rooms: a doctor, a dentist, (or THE Ohio State School of Dentistry where the wait usually extends to multi-page writings). Waiting rooms is the one place one can count on waiting and not being disturbed. One day, I managed to write three pages while sitting in the ophthalmologist exam room chair waiting for the doctor’s arrival.
4. Dream Journal: A decade ago, I began a separate journal for dreams. Writing the dream themes into my Morning Journal gets them lost among many pages of other notes. For a dream journal I use a 6 x 9 spiral, hard cover notebook with a notation on the front as to its purpose. It lives on my reading stand waiting for the early morning writings.
5. Retreat Journal: made of totally recycled paper is used only for the yearly solitary wilderness retreats. The 9 by 7 journal fits into a one gallon freezer bag, protecting it from the elements of camping, and allows it to ride safely in backpacks and bicycle pack trips during these retreat weeks.
6. Computer journal: By taking 10 minutes to open a file, speak my mind, then save it as a password-protected document, I can go about my day without trying to process an emotionally charged event that continues to occupy my attention. The computer journal files stored in encrypted formats frees me from worries that information that needs to be private is kept private.
7. Relationship (Shared) Journal: A shared journal? Yes, after having entered into a second marriage a little over a year ago, it seemed important to me to have some venue in which each of us could share some of our thoughts about the relationship. It’s the small journal I pull out on Sunday morning to write one page concerning thoughts, observations, and future plans, hopes, wishes or dreams for the relationship. This small journal is where we place mementos of shared events i.e. theater tickets, restaurant souvenirs, etc. and, a sharing of things for which we have great gratitude.
8. This Blog: From My Chair: This blog, evolved out of a weekly Sunday morning ritual of writing some of my observations concerning my life and career as experienced from living on the sidelines of other people's lives as a therapist.
Hmm, I must be keeping Eight different forms of journals in recording my life. It just seems second nature to me at this point after having begun to write one penciled page a week 3 decades ago.
How can you find that much to write about in ordinary life?
When you write about your life, it does not seem so ordinary. You come to see your life with a greater sense of depth and richness. Additionally, you begin to see patterns, and symbols that are not apparent without taking the time to take note of the moment in which we exist.
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One comment
Comment by Marijane on May 5, 2011 at 11:48 PM
Although I feel it would be a full time job to have so many different journals, I think it's fascinating that you can do this.
I agree that seeing the depth and richness of our lives from the perspective of going back and re-reading our comments and feelings, can be a very valuable tool.
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