Write on...

When I am 100% on my game I journal.  I have multiple journals.  Almost all of them are black Moleskins.  Yes, I got sucked into that fad but I’m pretty sure it was before you did, so there.  I have a songwriting journal, a prayer journal and a fly-fishing journal.  I have a few random journals for random things and I even have a sketch journal even though I am not a great “sketcher”… Sketchy at best.

My hope in journaling is to capture thoughts and creative ideas as they creep in.  If they see or hear me they scurry away into the wilderness of my distraction, never to be seen again.  If in one motion I am able to sweep in with a pilot razor point (black extra fine) or a Kweco-sport roller ball they get trapped in my pages.  Some of them are serving what seems to be a life sentence.  [an unused idea written in a journal described as serving a life “sentence” is the kind of thing I hunt… just got one] Other ideas are sprung free moments after apprehension.  I grab em, give em a shake and try to get them to cough up the information. If they won’t talk they will sit there.  I have plenty of time…

Another reason for journaling is the hope that it will slow down my days.  It doesn’t work.  Since high school the years have been picking up speed and even if the ol notebook does not impact the second hand, at least I will know where the seconds went.  Old journals reveal occasional victories in the coliseum of personal development while others display bits and pieces of me, still being chewed by the lions.  Those are the troubling ones.  The balance of resting in God’s grace and still wanting to labor for the right things with the right motivation are separated by failing picket and barbed wire fence. 

The worst is when I re-read a journal from years ago and find myself belly aching about the same things that are holding me back today.  Can you relate?  It’s as if zero progress has been made and yet I know it can’t be as bad as it seems.  Or can it?

Yesterday is long gone. Tomorrow may not come.  All we have is now and the promise that if we open our eyes in the morning there will be new mercies to carry us through that 24 hour period.  You know… the one with enough worries of it’s own.

I wrote a list for 2012.  I was reading it to a friend the other day and it felt like a poem.

Bathroom

Water

Read

Pray

(Confess, repent, proclaim, acknowledge, listen)

 Journal

Move

Set goals for the day

Breakfast

Shower

Brush teeth

Shave

Eggs

Nuts

Fruit

(pears, oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, mango, melon, peaches)

Salad

Condiments

(Vinegar, mustard, Cholula Hot Sauce, fish sauce, peanut butter)

Avocados

Brown Rice

Lentils

All forms of good quality meat, fish and fowl

Veggies

(green beans, sprouts, squash, peas, corn, beets, parsnips, kayle)

Rise Early

Be Fit

Be Frugal

Be Kind

Be Creative

Be grateful

Be faithful

I love you for your time, your ears and your encouragement

Jim