Sometimes a person has been fed the lie that a narrow set of features equates to the perfect or proper journal. Depending on where you live or how you were brought up, that could mean that you do not feel that you are journal writing properly until it is a leather bound volume, or until you are writing with a restored fountain pen from 1932.
Although these features can feel great to some, understand that the right journal is the one that suits your purpose. Sometimes the right journal is the one that you have right now.
Taking a look at the first journal that I still possess, it is not what would be considered a proper journal in the circles in which I swam as a child. The journal, or diary as I called it, came from a kiddie casino named for a clothed rat mascot called Chuck E. Cheese. The place offered arcade games with prizes. Apparently, I had won a palm sized notebook featuring on the cover a cartoon character from the line of Chuck’s friends – an anthropomorphic hound named Jasper.
Above the character’s head is his name. My 8-year-old self drew a line or two through that word and scrawled the word “Diary” under it. My first bound personal book was born.
In writing the word “Diary,” in repurposing the bound pages, a life-long habit – which had already begun on scraps of paper long since lost- was solidified.
The point is to start where you are with what you have. Figure out your preferences as you go along, when you can, but start with what you have for right now.
Peace,
Deborah