I just started a new journal on Sunday. The previous notebook took me a full 3 years to fill, mostly because there are multi-month gaps. Indeed, I wrote nothing from May 2013 to March 2014. I kept sporadic notes over the next few months. I took my journal to the beach in August 2014, recorded a few days, then dug the journal out of an unpacked bag from the beach in…December. Clearly, despite my keeping a journal since 1991, journaling was no longer a priority for me (and the unpacked bag shows why I’m not into the Kon-Mari thing).
Nonetheless, I decided that for 2015 I wanted to get back into the habit. And so far, I seem to have been able to restart it. I have kept detailed records of the past 100 days (starting in late December). I’m glad I have. As I was filling out the final page of my notebook while sitting beside the Y pool at swim lessons on Saturday, I read over a few old entries. I quite enjoyed doing so. They reminded me of things I’d forgotten. That, of course, made me sad that I’d let much of 2013 and 2014 go unrecorded. They were good years. I suppose there’s nothing to be done about that now, though I’m trying to remember this feeling of regret, because it’s what will inspire me to pull out the journal each day and make time to write in it. It’s also a nudge to dig up old journals and read through some passages. That, too, will remind me why I write.
Do you keep a journal? How faithfully do you do so?