Our old house is cleared out and I have more boxes to unpack. Now we are into the stuff that isn't as pertinent to everyday life. The stuff that's collected. Sentimental stuff. Or it was in the schoolroom, but I don't have a room set aside for school anymore. School is getting done all over the house.
It isn't hard to decide where most of the things should go, if they should be kept or not, stored or kept out. However, there is one collection in particular that's giving me pause.
My notebooks. These (and more) are the storehouses of my thoughts, prayers, rants, raves, studies, memories, life. I very rarely look at them. I'm not sure I'd even want anyone else to read them. But these pages hold the chronicles of my life and times. I can't bring myself to put them in the trash. Yet, I am asking myself if they are important enough to box up and use space in my already crowded closet.
What would you do? Do you keep every single journal forever and ever amen? If so, how do you store them? In a sealed box with instructions posted on the outside for your family to destroy the contents upon your untimely demise? Or have you pitched your used up journals?
I wish sometimes I had kept my old journals. I threw them out long ago. Some because they were too painful to read through, others because....well, what would I do with them, anyway?
ReplyDeleteNow, I wish I had kept them, painful or not. I look back at where I used to be in my life, my spiritual walk....what helped me get through? Would there have been any wisdom I could have given to myself from way back when? Something I've now forgotten?
Given the chance, I'd keep my journals.
Sincerely, someone-who-made-the-mistake-of-throwing-them-out-and-who-has-thought-many-times-of-writing-a-book-since-then, wishing-I-still-had-them-for-inspiration.
Melanie, Thank you for your thoughts. I think just the fact that I couldn't throw them away was an indication I didn't really want to. I hope you haven't stopped journalling. You could still write that book! :-)
DeleteMy grandmother's journals were a source of comfort to my mother and her sisters when Grandma died. She was a fact reporter. Sunny, got up 3 times to pee in the night, today is a grandkid's birthday. But they are so her. And truthfully, I think we're all hungry to understand another person's life. Good and bad. That insight might help us understand ourselves.
ReplyDeleteHi Linda! So good to hear from you, Friend! I appreciate your being able to share from observed experience the value of a journal saved. You're so right - we are hungry to understand, aren't we? Makes me think that maybe some of those scribbled thoughts should be shared more openly to begin with. Thanks!
DeleteMy husband feels exactly the same way. He has piles and piles of notebooks.
ReplyDeleteSome of it he would want others to read, some should not. But the dark times when he wrestled with the Lord about things and God taught him stuff could be a comfort to others.
I don't journal, so I don't have to worry about it. Ha Ha. I blog. :)
Hi Katie! Thanks for stopping by. I'm finding that blogging meets different needs for me than the stuff that goes in my notebooks. There's definitely more processing that happens in the notebooks, whereas the blog post is the finished thought process. Anyway, the notebooks are safely tucked away in a box with room to spare. Guess I'll keep them awhile longer. :-)
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