A Little Advice from Me Concerning Journals

Want to keep a journal but don't have time? Me, too! I think everyone old enough to write should keep one. What I do is copy an email occasionally to My Journal (whatever year I'm writing) Not just any old email, but one in which I tell the person what I've been doing lately, and since I usually include pictures with such emails, I copy them into the journal page, too.

For instance, tonight I sent my 94 year old mom an email telling her about Audrey's party and the gifts I gave/made her. Mom doesn't have a computer, so she can't go to my blog and read, but she does have a electronic "mailbox" that allows her to receive emails and pictures from family and friends. This is the kind of email I like to copy into my journal.

When I started four years ago, I always made a hard copy of my journal pages and put them in a three ring binder. I've gotten rather lazy of late, and the last couple of years' journals are still just on the computer. But, hey! Even that is better than no journal at all. I find that I have a lot more to my journal now that I save emails. I tried to just sit down and write before, but I just didn't do that very often.

I'm a history buff and I like to read journals that people kept in the past--I'm interested in their daily life, what they thought and what they did. While your life may seem rather humdrum to you, a hundred years from now, your progeny will find it as interesting as we do Civil War journals now--hey, maybe your kids will find it interesting 20 years from now.

So, if you don't WANT to keep a journal, that's OK. Don't! But if you Do want to, and are just too pressed for time, consider doing it the way I do. And let me know how it goes.