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Dalton
Roberts |
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If any sincere 20-year-old person asked me for just one big item of advice, I would say, “Start a chronological journal where you record the events of your life and your thoughts.” Walk with me through one day’s entries in my journal and I believe you can see how meaningful journaling can be. Here’s a very old letter I wrote to my parents when I was 29 years old. I was working on my thesis and had just gone from a ten-month to a twelve-month teacher’s salary. Just reading this brought back my elation at not being forced every summer into some dead end, low-paying job just to feed my wife and two kids. I like to remember those hard times. When Bessie Smith became the highest-paid female entertainer in the world and owned her own railroad car outfitted in red velvet, she always kept a jar of pig’s feet around. She said she did it to remind her how hard it had been to survive when she was a young child. My journal today gave me the same deep appreciation Bessie must have felt. There’s a clipping of an article by Times Courthouse Reporter Harry Young when I was 32 where I was mentioned as a potential opponent of Bill Brock when he was in the House. Bill and I were actually old Jaycee friends and I wisely decided not to run against him. A journal helps you avoid some old mistakes but it also celebrates your wise decisions. Sometimes a days’ entry in a journal will just be the processing of some old childhood “stuff.” My mother had so much faith in me that she gave me the feeling that it was up to me to change the world. I soon determined I might not be qualified for the job. Then I learned that the world didn’t want me to save it and I went to work just doing the best I could where I was. Working through those feelings on this date in my forties I included a great statement by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: “All you earnest young men out to save the world … please, have a laugh.” On many days there will be a note from a dear friend who has departed this life. On this date my favorite author and poet, James Dillet Freeman, wrote me a note saying he liked my song, “The Path of Glee,” and added, “Life is singing through you.” A little note like that from a hero can perk up any day. On this day in 1990 I spent some time with the late County Historian Dr. James Livinggood. To sit and talk to him for an hour was a substantial education and I grabbed every chance I could to let him educate me. Most days there is some mention of my birds or one of my critters. This day brought back smiling memories of Thumper, my rabbit pal who was almost tame. I kept rabbit chow out for him in my back yard and he would come and dine, then find a place in the shade of the old crooked apple tree in my back yard and take a nap with all four feet sticking up in the air like a big fat tourist on the beach. My journal preserves many wonderful memories of my dear animal friends. Possibly the highest and best use of a journal is your own personal growth. On this day one year when I felt my life was in limbo, one of my spiritual teachers said, “Make a decision to let spiritual energy pour through you. Let the sense of wonder be constant.” I am not sure how well I have practiced those insights but I am certain they have been beacons shining from the pages of my journal. Is it time for you to begin communing with your life through a journal?
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