Worries

Do you write personal things in your journal?

Are you able to write what you are really thinking?

Do you worry about writing something too personal? What if someone finds your notebook and reads it?

Yes, someone could find your notebook and read it and . . . what? Think lesser of you? Find out what you are really thinking? Would that end your relationship? Or, perhaps change it?

You could go through life worrying and not doing what you really want to do for fear of what others might think.

Or, you can trust that your need to express yourself through writing is more powerful and more important than these worries.

You can burn or destroy your notebooks every so often. But then you wouldn’t be able to access these precious memories that you archived.

Simple solution: Keep your notebook in a safe place. And trust in the process.

I’m in the process of reading through twenty years worth of journals. When my daughter heard that I was going to destroy then, she protested. “No, keep them. We’ll want to read them.” Oh. Really? Um . . . about that . . . I wouldn’t want anyone to read everything I’ve written over the years.

I reached a compromise. I’m tearing out pages I don’t want anyone to see. The tame stuff, the creative stuff, are available for others’ perusal. But the personal stuff? Going, going, gone. Like the dandelion seeds that disperse and float in the wind.

After all, in my journals, I’m writing for me, not for an audience. But I do understand and agree with my daughter, some things should be written, remembered, and in a way, memorialized. These precious memories are to be shared. But the writer gets to choose what is shared.

So, keep writing and share only what you want to share.