Dreams seem more attainable, struggles less overwhelming, dislikes less annoying, likes more fantastic, victories more victorious. Or maybe it's just as Anais Nin said, "We write to taste life twice." All dreams are dreamed again. All battles are won a second, or third or fourth time. All lessons learned are learned again. Memories that easily could have been forgotten are relived for a lifetime. Beauty lasts forever on a page.
But there are two sides to this. Beauty lasts forever, but ugliness, too, lives on. Memories and feelings, hurtful words and missed opportunities outlive the person who wrote them, if they make it into those simple books called journals.
Think twice, dear readers! Think again and again, about the times in life that you truly will wish to repeat, before you allow yourself to record them. Times when you've been hurt by sharp words ought not make their way to the pages. Do not write in anger or fear, or if you must get it out, burn the pages before you have the chance to reread them.
The rambler once read Anne Frank's Diary, or journal, if you will. She enjoyed much of it, but how much would never have been written if dear Anne knew people would one day read her scribbling.
Yes, hopes, dreams, likes, dislikes, struggles, victories, failures, lessons learned, these are the things that should be written in the precious pages of a journal. Never hate. Never anger. Never jealousy or greed or discontentment or spiteful thinking.
Words are powerful things, and how much more weight they carry once we're gone. Only once we are gone will people read our journals. What do you want others to read?
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Over and out,
~Emily
Love this one, Emily!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Audrey! =)
DeleteI think a journal should be the one place a writer feels completely and wholly safe -- where she can write anything and understand that it needed to be said, even if it was ugly or hurtful. Otherwise, where else will it go? Out of her mouth, perhaps to someone who will repeat it, and then it will do far more damage than a few scribbles on the page will. You're right -- words are powerful. They can be harmful, whether said or spoken or dreamed, just as they can be healing. But I ask you -- and I ask myself this as well...
ReplyDeleteWhat if they're just as harmful never written?
Anyway, just my thoughts. Your words are beautiful here, and as a journaler, I find parts of them so vivid, so true, that I can't help but cry yes. But I also think that journals are the one place you shouldn't censor yourself. If a writer can't spill the truth on the page, how will she ever speak the truth out loud?
I wholeheartedly agree, Shelby, so perhaps I should have written about my, "other," journal, as well. I have my normal journal, in which I am very careful what I write. I write everything I want, except for the things that could prove to be hurtful, or just plain pointless, someday. My, "other," journal is where I dump absolutely everything, in the form of letters to God. When I simply must get something off my chest, it goes in there. While I'm still careful to never write spiteful or jealous thoughts, this journal does hold it all. I won't be keeping this journal, though. this one will be burned.
DeleteWhen friends confide in me, it's not right to share that with anyone (unless, of course, they are in some kind of danger, but that goes without saying). I wouldn't feel right even writing those things in my journal, because someday someone probably will read it. But, I do sometimes need to get it out, like you said, and that's why it goes in my other journal.
Thank you so much for the thoughts! =)