Interesting find
Yesterday my daughter presented me with an old journal of mine that she'd found in her room (we swapped rooms around a couple of years ago and it had ended up behind the bookcase). I'd only made a few entries in it and it was 4 years old but it was an interesting find none the less.
When I had some time alone this morning I read through the entries and my first reaction was to tear them out so I could start afresh. But despite some things that made me cringe to read, there was a few hidden gems- little things that whilst not greatly significant still made me smile. I realised that I've always done this in the past-I've always read back through old entries, felt a little embarrassed by them and so destroyed them in some way (whether by simply hitting my delete key or by actually physically tearing up pages). But by wiping out that which makes me feel a little uncomfortable to read I've also been destroying the memories that make me feel good. I'm not talking about the big stuff here, you don't need a journal entry to remember them, just the tiny little things that you soon forget about but still have the power to make you smile when see a reminder of them.
Maybe I'm just slow on the uptake here; maybe that's what everyone else already gets out of keeping a journal; or maybe I just woke up feeling over-sentimental this morning. (All of the above you say?) Whatever, I'm going to hold onto those little things even if other stuff makes me cringe.
When I had some time alone this morning I read through the entries and my first reaction was to tear them out so I could start afresh. But despite some things that made me cringe to read, there was a few hidden gems- little things that whilst not greatly significant still made me smile. I realised that I've always done this in the past-I've always read back through old entries, felt a little embarrassed by them and so destroyed them in some way (whether by simply hitting my delete key or by actually physically tearing up pages). But by wiping out that which makes me feel a little uncomfortable to read I've also been destroying the memories that make me feel good. I'm not talking about the big stuff here, you don't need a journal entry to remember them, just the tiny little things that you soon forget about but still have the power to make you smile when see a reminder of them.
Maybe I'm just slow on the uptake here; maybe that's what everyone else already gets out of keeping a journal; or maybe I just woke up feeling over-sentimental this morning. (All of the above you say?) Whatever, I'm going to hold onto those little things even if other stuff makes me cringe.