As you know I have recently started blogging! It brings me so much pleasure and I have to be careful not to become addicted!
Somehow though, whenever I visit a book shop, I just can't resist looking through the variety of striped or dotted, card-backed or fabric-covered and even glove-soft leather notebooks. The colourful jackets of these books are so lovely and you just know that they could add cheer to any desk or table with all those sunny hues and patterns. The question though is, if I buy one, will it just be for decoration? Would I rather take a seat behing my PC and blog or will I really put such an expensive journal to good use? These books are just too special and not really suitable to use for scribbling my Morning Pages. I think mine might just sadly end up being a white elephant on my bedside table!
It might make a useful gift for a special friend or one of my daughters though!
I have journaled for years and always love the feel of smooth, clean pages. But mostly I appreciate the way keeping a journal has helped me discern what I am truly thinking and feeling and begin to notice where God is truly present. Our journals keep our secrets; we can write anything...although I did burn one once just in case. Then 18 months ago I started blogging and my most recent journal is on the shelf nearby, largely unused.
ReplyDeleteYet one is not really a substitute for the other, and the two ways of writing are different. I am mindful of my blog readers, so I think respectfully through what I say. Yet I still want to be honest and genuine, especially about those things where I struggle. But only last week, I woke up in the middle of the night and removed a post of the evening before...it was just more honest than I could be to the world at the time. I should have gotten out my journal instead.
One great thing about blogging, however, is that it encourages me to polish and edit what I write. I am communicating to others, not just myself and God, and so I am learning to respect the craft of writing more. Blogging helps me be concise and not ramble, something my congregation appreciates if I carry that conciseness over into Sunday's message :) But you wouldn't know about conciseness from this rambling comment.
Keep blogging, keep writing and I'll be following.
Yay! I can talk to you again!
ReplyDeleteYes blogging can kind of take over: I found I had to guard against seeing everything through the lens of "a possible post." -
My camera had to go everywhere with me.
But, having said that, when I was doing the Morning Pages, I realised afresh that there is something special about pouring your heart out in long hand on paper . .
I LOVE beautiful notebooks - even the smell of them!