Journals

Throughout my life, my journaling has been sporadic at best. If you were to open the cover of Julie's Journal Volume 1 (the light blue one), you would find the remnants of several torn out pages. Apparently when I was 11, I was under the impression that you had to write in a journal daily for it to really count. If I skipped a day or two, I would rip out what I had already written and throw it away to start over. I really wish I had known better. I think at some point my mom found the torn out pages in the trash and told me I didn't have to do that. That put a stop to my ripping up my journal. The pages of my adolescent and early adult journals are mostly full of solutions to the world's problems and the various dramas that accompany most people of that age: boys and friends.

I was quite dedicated to keeping a thorough journal while I was on my mission. I also wrote really good letters home. I have those letters now and am thankful I wrote so much detail about what I was experiencing. Once I got home and started dating Daniel, I wrote less and less frequently, which I now regret because that was such an exciting time of my life. After we got married, the pace of life sped up and I would get frustrated at how slow I write by hand. I didn't feel like I was able to write what I wanted to write the way I wanted to write it simply because it required more time than I had. My solution to that was to not write at all.

My journals in chronological order.

Then I started blogging!  To the bemusement and pleasure of each of you (sarcasm) I have been able to regale you with tales of our trips, accomplishments, pet peeves, and epiphanies and have treated this blog as a journal. In many ways it is. However, in recent months I have felt a need to write about things that are too personal for me to share in this public a forum.

About a month ago, a friend told me about an online journal that she uses. To say I was thrilled would be an understatement. I was overjoyed and grateful for this solution to many weeks of heartfelt longing. It is a secure and free journaling service and has been exactly the outlet I've needed. Because it's online, I can type my entries, copy and paste from my blog to my journal and vice versa. I can attach photos, hyperlinks, word processing documents, quotes, and footnotes. I can give each entry a subject heading and even set up periodic email reminders to write. If I'm at a loss for what to write about (which has not been a problem thus far) there are prompts that I can respond to. There is also a section that asks specific questions about my life that I can answer whenever I want. When I'm ready, I can have my entries (including photos and other attachments, though I'm not sure about the hyperlinks) printed into a hard-bound journal for a very reasonable price. If you're interested, the site is www.ldsjournal.com. While the site is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is designed for members of the church. There is no reason, however, why people who aren't members couldn't use it. Some of the specific life questions reference LDS beliefs or use LDS terminology, but those can just be left blank.

Thank you for hanging in there and reading to the end of this post. I've just been so excited about my  new way of journaling that I wanted to share it with all of you. Let me know if you sign up for it and what you think of it!