Writing a Journal

The journal in the picture is a dream journal. That's one purpose of writing a journal - - to record things like dreams or prayers or quotes or things you're thankful for in order to remember them. Other purposes might be:

• to express yourself
• to heal
• to leave memories for people close to you
• to relax
• to create
• to think or reflect or ponder

There are so many ways to write in a journal! Some people journal in a very basic way by writing in a plain notebook. Some people create beautiful artwork as their expressions (there are some links later on the page to some sites about this). Others record dreams or prayers.

How do you journal? Let me know in the poll following this section.

I've written in journals in different ways. My favorites are writing to ponder things, or writing poetry.

Here's something I wrote as I pondered A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and reflected on his writings about Beingness. If you've read the book, this will make sense. If you haven't, it may or may not make sense. But it still gives you an example of my thought processes in my writing.

We Call it Bird

We call it "bird."
But it's essence. It's life.
It's an expression or creation of Life.
It's life in a particular form.
We call that form "bird."

With "bird" we associate things like wings, flight, chirping, flying into windows, stupid, dirty, feathers, beaks, poop, worms, trees, nests.

This becomes its identity.

Yet, the beingness or essence that is the "bird" is rarely known.
Our connection with that essence is rarely experienced.
So we don't "see" it and love it and treasure it and be with it.

It's the same with our fellow human beings.

We call it "human."
But it's essence. It's life.
It's an expression or creation of Life.
It's life in a particular form.
We call that form "human."

More specifically, we may call that form "woman," "wife," "mother," "friend," "sister," "Julie." We may associate brown hair, pretty, calm, stubborn, the house down the street, Ukrainian, Canadian, Buddhist, cancer-survivor, teacher, narrow-minded, intelligent . . . or any other characteristic . . . with "Julie."

This becomes who "Julie" is.

Yet, the beingness or essence that truly is "Julie" is rarely known. Our connection with that essence is rarely experienced. So we don't "see" it or love it or treasure it or be with the "is-ness" that is "Julie."

We judge.
We like or dislike.
We associate or dismiss.
We mistreat.
We ignore.
We go about our own business, unaware of "Julie's" beingness . . . and unaware of our own.

We're:

• striving . . . to earn, to learn, to be right, to get through the day, to achieve, to be seen, to escape, to find "more"
• busy doing
• constantly accumulating

It didn't used to matter what I wrote in as long as it was pretty! I love journals that have gorgeous artwork on the cover, pretty paper inside, and quotes written in fancy writing!

But . . .

Over time, I've become more conscious of the environment and how I can help to care for it. So, I choose green, or eco-friendly, journals now. Sometimes I write on Elephant Poo Poo Paper. Most of the time I just write in basic, plain journals made of recycled materials. But there are some really pretty tree-free journals and other eco-friendly journals, so it doesn't just have to be about boring stuff! You can see some of them below.