The journal, “allows me to find out what my ideas are without boring another person with an observation I haven’t yet made clear to myself…” – Kyoko Mori
Are you reading my mind? Is what I thought when I first read what Mori has written. I, too, prefer to gather my thoughts in writing first before talking.
Mori is a writer who contributed to the journaling anthology titled Writers and Their Notebooks. The author mentions many uses of journals while weaving in her personal story.
Her grandfather would journal with a fountain pen about the state of his garden, or about spending time with his grandchildren. He would do so every day at a certain time. He would never express his disappointments or regrets in his personal book.
The author recalls sitting with him as a child and writing in a journal in which each page was divided in half- a blank space at the top for photos or illustrations and lines at the bottom for words.
The author would also describe her day of swimming, or eating produce from the garden, etc.
The writer describes their mother as one who would express her grief in a journal after the family moved far away from friends. Journaling was sporadic.
Mori describes journal habits as an adult as being a combination of these two adults from childhood – allowing for the description of emotion, if needed, like the mother, and some order like the grandfather (sans fountain pen).
Mori goes on to say that journaling is sometimes used for travel, but it is also used to remember the people who are long gone, putting memories down on paper.
Whatever your reason for journaling, I hope you find it fulfilling and useful.
Peace,
Deborah