“Sometime in your life you will go on a journey.
It will be the longest journey you have ever taken.
It is the journey to find yourself.”
Katherine Sharp Simple Abundance
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image courtesy of ancientchildren.com
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Theres no denying, the path to self discovery is full of half filled journals. Each one begun with zeal and promise and oft-times left forgotten under the press of other, more important matters. The funny thing about journals is that they aren’t a new thing. Writing in a journal has been an occupation which has been around for hundreds of years. The main difference is that they were often called diaries back then. Many a fair Victorian lady could be seen writing in her diary, her thoughts, her hopes, her dreams and it was a perfectly acceptable, indeed, it was a recommended pastime for a young lady. They even date back to Roman times and were called a ‘diurnal’.
So why have they achieved so much prominence now? My personal view is that many people have taken the route to self discovery and recognised the value of keeping a journal. It allows you to order your thoughts, identify recurring patterns of behaviour or thoughts and allows you to express those inner most desires we often don’t wish to share with anyone else. They also allow you a path to self discovery and improvement. Recently I completed a 30 day Gratitude Challenge wherein I kept a journal, (a Gratitude Journal) for thirty days. We looked at the things in our daily lives for which we were grateful. When viewed from a different perspective it is amazing to find how many things each day we can be grateful for. With the right degree of coaching (suggestions on how to look at the every day things in a different light), it is incredibly easy to find many incidental things we are grateful for, the sunny day instead of rain, the rainy day to water the garden and bring on our plants, the beautiful moon shining down on us, the help of a stranger as we struggle with our shopping, the smile from a waitress as she brings our order, the love and understanding from a husband or wife, the smile and hug from a child. The list becomes endless when you look with different eyes at the world around us.
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image courtesy of inside919.ning.com
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However, we, my husband and I, have had so much fun doing the Gratitude Challenge that we decided to repeat it again. We are finding more and more things we are grateful for and we are finding ourselves happier each day as we fill in our journal. We are also happier with each other because we have more things we are grateful for about each other! A wonderful bonus! So we decided it would be even more fun to combine our journal with a personal history. We had already decided to make a travel journal, recording each outing, however big or small, one picture to act as a memory trigger and writing about the activities and what we had appreciated about them. In essence, what we were grateful for as a result of our experiences.
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On thinking about what we planned we decided to get a large two ring binder, not a small one since we plan on putting lots into this, and called it a “Living Journal” because it was something we were going to continue to add to throughout our lives. It would be a record of our journey, with gratitude, throughout all the countries and places we visited and recorded in our “Living Journal.” Sounds great! It couldn’t be any old two ring binder though. We wanted to make it something special from the outset to match the intent we had for it.
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So we went out and wandered through the craft areas of one of the local shops and gathered the supplies we thought would make this something extra special. We came home with styrofoam and wadding to make it nicely padded. We found two different types of material to decorate it with, plus some ‘rope binding’ to divide the segments. We also have some glitter stickers and butterflies to finish off the dressing. We made a start this evening, getting the foam glued to the folder – and melting some in the process. We learned to be grateful it wasn’t glued to the board we rested it on! We played around with the material deciding which pictures we might like in each ‘quadrant’ (there will be four sections front and back but not squared off or totally symmetrical since life isn’t boxed up so neatly), and how it would be finished off with the other adornments. I have a feeling we may decide to add to it but that’s part of the fun.
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image courtesy of liesel.typepad.com
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We already have a couple of small outings planned and a slightly longer holiday plus a big eightieth birthday party to attend. Dare I say it, we are almost excited to be able to start filling our journal! The wonderful thing about it is that we can simply add the pages as we like, until it is filled and then we can begin another! We can use coloured or plain paper. We can each write what we like to add to the photo memory and add anything else which was special at that time. Perhaps an entry ticket somewhere or an information leaflet. The list is only limited by our imagination and what we are grateful for.
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Now I’m off to bed to dream about decorating my journal, my “Living Journal” and, since I feel I may want to decorate others now I have begun one, I’ll dream of the other also. I may take lessons in how to make them really decorative and the wonderful things about it is that we can look back on it later and have the memories as fresh as the day they happened. Lots of work and happy memories. A “Living Journal” – what a great idea Ray.
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image courtesy of dexknows.com
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“The heart of marriage is memories; and if the two of you happen to have the same ones and can savor your reruns, then your marriage is a gift from the gods.”
Bill Cosby
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image courtesy of jonnabarnett.blogspot.com
Owls and Orchids 
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