Journal

Happy to report that I have started journaling again (btw, spell check doesn't recognize the word journaling, nor does it recognize journalizing - which is the way Thoreau, the king of journals, wrote it - so I don't care what spell check thinks). I started keeping a prayer journal in high school because I was new to praying and it was less weird talking to someone I couldn't see if I could do it in the form of  a letter. Then, after I started painting, my prayer journal morphed into a stream-of-conscious diary where the only rule was to try to fill one page back and front each day in order to prevent an artistic block.  It sounds silly but it worked because I think I painted about 70 paintings that year.  And I discovered at the same time that journaling (journalizing) was also helpful for relieving the angst of being a 25 year old college dropout with a recently diagnosed chronic pain condition. So journaling is basically a pathway to God, a magic unblocker of creativity, and mighty cheap therapy.

Here I am at the tail end of 2011, forced to put off having a second child while I work out health issues and going through some rather sobering things with Remy, and I find myself craving that one page, front and back, once more.

If you are feeling angsty - or just creatively blocked - I highly recommend a journal. If you are a blogger you might think that counts...it doesn't!  A journal doesn't care about your grammar, it doesn't care if you have said the same thing a hundred times, it doesn't care if you are boring, confessional, opinionated, juvenile, or sad.  And finally, and perhaps most importantly, you can use shimmery, Christmas scented gel pens in your journal.

Don't worry blog, you are still my favorite place to post digital photos of my baby, my cats, and my mountain!