Reflections

I like to write. I've kept a journal since my senior year of high school. There's something about seeing my thoughts written down in my own penmanship that makes me feel reflective and nostalgic. This evening I ventured out to Barnes & Noble to pick out a new journal. My last one, full of three years of The Life of Jen, is nearing its last pages. I read through my last year's entries this week, and they made me realize a few things...

*God is good. My journal is another source of communication with God--it's where I voice my prayers, my hurts, my gratitude, and my dreams. It's very humbling to read back and see how God has answered my prayers and calmed my heart when needed. Sometimes it's too easy to forget His faithfulness. Reflecting on my writing also made me feel a connection to the book of Psalms... The Psalms are about people, their struggles, and their joy of living life under God. It is poetry and prayer to be set to music and worship. (My favorite is Psalm 139.) I hope that if my thoughts and words were set to music, that they would be just as honoring to God as the Psalms...

*Memories fade. In flipping back through my journal, there are several times where I went for months without writing. And it made me mad. What did I miss out on remembering? It bothers me, because I know that I have a horrible memory. My journal and my photographs are some of the few ways I really truly remember special moments in time. One day, when I'm old and wrinkled, and with the help of these precious memory-savers, I hope I can remember exactly what I was thinking and feeling during those special times...

My new journal...

My life in words...

"Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience."

~Henry David Thoreau~

Happy writing!

P.S. Also picked up Crazy Love and Wuthering Heights at B&N (and yes, I will be reading Wuthering Heights in my very horrible, really really awful, British accent just for kicks)... Dreary, rainy days call for good reading...