Belle the Cat

Journaling vs. Blogging

There is a stigma I attach to journaling, mainly because anyone can do it. Most people journal in some way. Maybe they write notes to themselves, or drafts of letters they may one day send. Perhaps they follow the cult of the Franklin Planner and write down the meaning of life in their daybook.

The whole idea of keeping a journal reminds me of pink teenage diaries, locked with a heart-shaped key. When I was a kid (a very anti-pink, anti-heart shaped anything kid) I tried to keep a “Captain’s Log” like they did on Star Trek, writing down what new things I learned or aliens I encountered. Needless to say, there weren’t many aliens to be found in rural Minnesota (or much of anything, to be honest.)

Fairly recently I read “Riding the Dragon” - actually, I faked reading it (another stigma - if I listen to a book on tape then technically I did not read it.) The gist was that writing 3 notebook pages full of thoughts in the morning (one’s Daily Pages) can help you stay creative and focused on work as well as life. And with that simple idea, I really began to journal.

I am to the last page now in my first journal in ages. I started after returning from a two-week trip to England in April of 2001. I talk to myself a lot anyway, so putting those ideas down on paper wasn’t hard. I had to learn to date my pages though (only took me a year to realize I had no idea when I had written my entries.)

Unlike my mother, I try to put everything in my journal EXCEPT the weather (whereas that’s all she records - “I don’t want to think of someone reading it and thinking, boy Mom was a weirdo!”)

Well, I do admit that I edit the things that end up on my web journal, knowing that my employer, fellow employees as well as friends, family, enemies and strangers all have easy access. I have thought about, and even took the first few steps towards, turning my web journal into a weblog,or BLOG. But in a way, I feel that I should keep going the way I started - with old fashioned entries (dated of course!)

I don’t have many links to other places on the web - they would in turn lead to other links and other web sites and soon the visitor to my page is so caught up in the Wolf Pack of information on the Superhighway that they’d go cruising off and leave my little site in the dust.

So no, it is not a blog - even though it says it is. Yes, I have started a new hard copy journal. And yes, if anyone were to read it, I know for sure that they’d say, “Man, she was a weirdo.” But you know what Ma? Everyone is.