My least successful stab at keeping a journal was in 1998. I’m going to call it an adventure because way back then I was trying something new, unusual, exciting and fun. My other reason for this is because yesterday and today the challenges are ‘journal’ and ‘adventure’ and I’m trying to make sense of my decision to combine the two. I do realize keeping a journal is not everyone’s idea of breathtaking adventure.
Anyway, adventurous or not, I did it because Oprah told me to. She said everyone should write down three things they are grateful for every day. I had the perfect book to put it in too, something I purchased on a whim called “Love, A Book of Days.” It is full of beautiful art work and famous quotes with love as a recurring theme, with six or seven little blank numbered spaces on every other page, the perfect size for recording spurts of gratefulness.
My dedication to this endeavour lasted about fifteen weeks. However, the last four weeks probably shouldn’t count because all I was writing by then were three strange words a day – words like syzygy, fossiker and ozostomia. I suppose we can assume I was grateful for those words, but only up to a point, because suddenly I just stopped being grateful for anything at all and the rest of the pages are blank. Except of course for the painting reproductions and the blurbs about love by famous people. So it’s still a book worth keeping, despite being scribbled in.
Are you watching the Sochi Olympics this winter? The reason I ask is because in 1998 the Nagano Olympics were happening. I would not have remembered this if I hadn’t written that I was thankful for knowing the ice dancing judges were idiots and being grateful for Olympic hockey games and never having to actually watch any of them.
Other less historically significant things on my list included being grateful for –
1. Weekends and sleeping in
2. Clumping cat litter
3. Being able to recognize my boss’s insanity/cope with her mental instability (there are apparently many ways to say this)
4. How quickly one can make spaghetti
5. Phone calls that are for me/phone calls that are NOT for me
6. Medical terminology for transcriptionists
7. Selective memory
8. Bohemian Rhapsody
9. Chiropractors and not needing one
10. Shoelaces
11. Shopping lists, finding my shopping list while shopping, getting things that are not on my shopping list
12. Stat Holidays, even when they’re a joke.
I have no idea what that last one means. One day I wrote meditation, mediation, medication. And the boss is the one who’s nuts? Yeah.
Did you ever keep a journal? Are you going to burn it before you die?
Cin’s Feb Challenge – Day 20 Journal, Day 21 Adventure
Great list! 🙂
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Thanks. I thought the clumping cat litter was an elegant touch. 🙂
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Very nice post. And yes, I’ve watched much of the Sochi Olympics. I wondered if there was discrepancy among the judges in the women’s skating event where the Russian skater took the gold over the Korean skater.
I don’t write what I’m grateful for but start off my mornings (most) with just recognizing that I’m alive and being grateful for another wonderful day. Doesn’t always turn out that way:)
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That’s the absolute best way to start the day. Breathing and things. 😀 I’ve been watching aftermaths and highlights – kind of a pathetic fan.
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Shredded my teenage diary last year when I finally realised that I might die unexpectedly. 😀
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LOL – I burned all my teenage blather just before I got married in case it might incriminate me later or come back to haunt me.
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🙂
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I was never the diary type– sort of wish I did… alas.
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It can be a humbling (and humiliating) experience to go back and listen to yourself. I think I prefer making things up…. lol
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I am a fantastic beginner-of-journals. Following through, though, is not my strong suit. I’ve come to the point where I accept (mostly) my foibles, so I probably won’t burn or destroy anything. Anyway, I loved this, especially the wordplay. Meditation-mediation-medication; fwiw, I think it’s awesome!
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I love that – ‘beginner-of-journals’ – I’m a good beginner of many things actually, but unfinished journals have definitely collected over the years.
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I have a couple Natalie Goldberg books (“bones” and “old friend”), and they are super for initiating prompts and journal writing, too.
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Thank you! I will look those up. ♥
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Clumping cat litter – I never gave that much thought, but now that you mention it, it certainly does deserve recognition. As for #6, however, I am a medical transcriptionist and medical terminology wouldn’t make any list I can think of.
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You only truly appreciate the clumping kind if you buy they other stuff by mistake. I used to love trying to figure out big medical words – they can be a lot like a doctors writing – cryptic and indecipherable.
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You are a romantic! Yes, selective memory works!
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Yes it does. 🙂 Or forgetting stuff altogether. lol
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