Journal Days 2/27/2012

Smiling to myself as I sat down to write today, I thought, “This will be another ‘This & That’ post.”  Our weekend has been nothing to write home about – or maybe I should say nothing to blog about.  We’ve done some everyday, run-of-the-mill errands, and several times over the last couple of days I thought, “There will be nothing is talk about on Sunday – again.”

So instead of trying to create something out of nothing, I decided to just call “nothing” something else.  Instead of giving our everyday, normal lives a cute title, I’m going to simply start calling them “Journal Days” – because that is really what I do.  I journal – but instead of writing my thoughts down in a beautiful, leather-bound book, my journal is public.

A few decades ago I would have called them “Diary Days”.  Do you remember writing in a diary?  I guess it’s mainly a girl thing, but I sure did a lot of it as a teenager – and even before.  I know now that even back then the writing bug had already bitten, infecting me  with a virus I still carry – this need to put down on paper – now on the laptop screen -  my thoughts, my loves, my worries, and my day-to-day life.  Back then it was all a big secret.  I’d write, then lock the diary with its tiny key.  Now I keyboard it all in, click a key on the laptop, and publish it for all the world to see – well, not the world certainly – but you, my faithful readers.

In the years I’ve been doing this – both on Mackinac Island and here at Lake Blackshear – I’ve learned that even the smallest action, the tiniest idea, the most mundane sight, and the most normal activity are all important parts of what make up a life.  Publishing those things is certainly not what makes them important; but writing about life in journal form online has caused me to look at even the most unimportant encounter as an event that may be worth sharing – through words or photographs.

Read a good book?  Share it online, and others may read it also.  Go someplace different?  Share it online, and others could want to visit.  Volunteer work?  Share it online, and others may be encouraged to do the same.  See a perfect flower, or tree, or horse, or sunrise?  Share it online so more can enjoy it.  Pray for a friend?  Share it online, and the prayers multiply.  You all know what my interests are because I’ve been sharing them for a long time.  But even if I stopped doing this public sharing, I don’t think I could ever stop writing it all down.  It makes me look at everything differently.  It makes me break down the big picture of this world into tiny, tiny little pieces – where a butterfly propped atop a daisy can prompt me to run for the camera, where Bear looking up into 90-year-old eyes in a nursing home can make me totally forget the nightmare of traveling with him, where the sight of this year’s first robin can make me think, “Ah, Spring!”  It makes me realize that most of the big events in our lives are not nearly as important as all the precious little moments we take into our hearts – and that we sometimes share.

So I ramble on for now – taking joy from family and friends, finding peace in sunlight shimmering on water, drawing comfort from stroking the soft fur of an endless number of four-legged friends, and loving the calm that comes to me through writing.

And tonight, I just wanted to share all that with a few friends.

Ah. Spring!