Writing in the Present to Remember Our Past in the Future

My friend, Lisa, just reminded me the importance of journal-ing, even the smallest things in life. After all, most of our days are made up of uneventful little tasks. While reading Lisa's posts I recalled reading in the journals of my grandparents or my mom or my dad. Reading my father's journal entries introduced me to a side of him that I would never have known had I not had glimpses of it in his writing. His writings of my mother are romantic and sweet. His testimony of the Gospel unwavering. While his actions in life have shown me his love of the Gospel (strict church attendance, valiance in his callings, etc). ...the words he wrote were even more powerful.  He can write things that he can never say out loud. I am thankful for those moments reading his thoughts. It has really helped me understand a little better who this complex character, my dad, is. Haha...and now I am laughing because I am not sure he knows I have read these things. I was a snoopy child. Most likely  looking for something in my parent's room and stumbling upon his missionary journals and sitting down for a good read. I probably should have asked.

Lisa challenged her readers to write something everyday. She said not to worry about pictures or the perfectness of the post. Forget about trying to witty and amusing and just write. So I am extending her challenge on. It is important. The brethren of the church have always stressed journal keeping. and today I think I realized why...just a little...thinking back on the moments I have had reading the thoughts of my ancestors and families.

On Saturday, 20 June 1942, Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who eventually died in the Holocaust, wrote the following in her personal journal: “I haven’t written for a few days, because I wanted first of all to think about my diary. It’s an odd idea for someone like me to keep a diary; not only because I have never done so before, but because it seems to me that neither I—nor for that matter anyone else—will be interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. Still, what does that matter? I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart” (Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl [1952], 2).


If you still need more convincing on the importance of journal writing and record keeping then LDS.org can offer you many. That is where I found the above reference to Anne Frank. How profound right? 


http://www.lds.org/ensign/1999/09/why-write-it?lang=eng&query=keeping+journal This talk by Brad Wilcox gives many reasons why it is important to write about our lives. It is more than writing for our ancestors. It is about discovering who we are and providing an outlet for us to think and create. The process allows us to work through struggles and process where we are at in our lives. The last post I wrote about my slump was not one I wanted to write. In fact, I resisted it. At the urging of my sister I finally sat down to try and put words to what I was feeling. By the end of writing the post I felt 100% better and was sure I actually did not need to write the post...a conclusion I could not have come to without actually writing it. Make sense? :)

So thank you Lisa for once again prompting me to "put pen to paper". I need to stop waiting for a light bulb to come on to write and just do it. My memories depend on it.

What to Say?

I have been trying to think of something to say but I have been at a loss. I figured I could at least post about Carter. I can always talk about him.

Oh! On Monday night we had Family Home Evening and Josh asked me if I would give a lesson. I said "No." ha! Just Kidding! Of course I would! I picked up the April Ensign and flipped right to an article about journal writing. If any of you have read this article then you might know why I was very pleased. You see, Josh has had some qualms about my blogging. He has taken it all totally wrong. For some reason he thinks I am just online "gossiping" all day(when in fact I average about 15 minutes of blog time daily). I have tried numerous times to reassure him that was not the case. So, when I could show him the box right in the middle of the article that gave suggestions about ways to keep a journal and point right to the word "blogging" I was thrilled!! I also expressed to him that this is the only way in which I have been good at recording things. I have many attempts at journaling in books that have all failed miserably. I expressed to him how much Carter, as well as the two of us, will like to read back over my entries and see how much he has grown. It is a way of preserving feelings and moments that we will one day want to draw from and think back on and if we can't remember them, we better hope we wrote about it somewhere! I pleaded my case with him and he got a better understanding and now approves. Though, I better not be doing it while he is home;) He thinks he deserves my undivided attention or something. I guess that makes two because Carter is jumping up and down if front of me and waving stuff around and saying "Come On Mommy!" I swear...it is just 15 minutes!!

In other news. Carter and I were walking around ISU today and he was looking at me with my hand in my pocket. He then found his little pants pockets and put his tiny little hands in them and walked around like that for most of the time. It was probably one of the cutest things I have ever seen. He got a bunch of admirers oogling over him and he said "Hi" to everyone he passed. Funny thing is...most college students don't know how to react to a simple, innocent "hi" They all seemed to be caught a little of guard. Maybe there should be a person assigned to walk around campus all day saying "hi" to people so that we don't have to encounter anymore un-comfortablenesses...sheesh! Come on people!