Enjoy the Journey

“Enjoy the Journey” is the message that hangs from the rear view mirror of our car as a frequent reminder.  It’s fitting to me that it hangs there, a place that could symbolically represent looking back while still looking ahead.  Along the journey, we might also keep a journal, defined by dictionary.com as: “a daily record, as of occurrences, experiences, or observations”.

I’ve kept a journal of some kind (even notes on napkins and receipts) most of my life due to a strange fear I had as a child of getting amnesia and forgetting who I was! I’ve had a love affair with my camera for the same reason. I had only kept written journals until discovering art journaling recently, which has been a wonderful evolution. The fear has finally been replaced with healing, growing, loving, blooming, and finding/creating myself (how could I have been afraid of losing myself before I had even found/become myself?!?!). Journaling has become a place for *magic* as it helps me to think, remember, discover, love, and digest life… all the bitter and the sweet… like my mom’s death and the survival (and thriving!) of my preemie twins. Journaling has become a way to befriend myself/life.

I thought about why I love journaling for a comment (the paragraph above) that I left yesterday on a blog hoping to win a spot in the Lifebook 2015 class. I hadn’t intended to post the comment on facebook, but the blog apparently had that enabled. Two friends immediately “liked” the comment and more followed, which has led to this blog post (another form of journaling!).  I also realize now that art journaling has filled the role/need/place that I confess I thought scrapbooking would years ago (and I neglected to actually do much).

Here are a few (quite raw/novice!) excerpts from one of my journals at the beginning of this year, January, 2014 (and the very beginning of my attempting to “art” journal in addition to just writing).  I was inspired by many sources, especially the Journal Junkies books.  Pen, paper, glue, scraps, no rules, few expectations, conversing with self/life.  🙂

In addition, while discussing homeschool responsibilities with my kids (okay, while one of them was complaining about doing his writing!), I decided to give them an option to either do the typical 50 words per day minimum (about anything they want) or write 24 things they are grateful for each day from now until Thanksgiving (there are 24 lines per page in the journals they recently selected).  This gives them the option to write less per day, but hopefully, it will also help to encourage an attitude of gratitude (versus complaining)!  I started keeping a gratitude journal years ago and it has been a worthwhile practice.  Sometimes, I neglect to do so and I notice the difference it makes.  So, I have decided to join my kids for the next few months with 24 things per day (and I’m going to write with my left hand, not my dominant hand, to practice/strengthen writing skills and slow down).

I admit that I shelter and spoil my children in many ways, and they do not realize how fortunate they are as a result (although this is probably true for me as well most of the time!).  We do travel with our kids and discuss the world we encounter, including homeless people in cities, especially Portland, this past month.  We made a point to give away leftovers that the kids didn’t eat (such as untouched pieces of pizza) to someone on the street (at home, we save it or give it to the chickens).  Still, most of the time, my kids don’t have to face the bitter truths of hunger, violence, scarcity, abuse, and such that exist elsewhere.  Would they be more grateful for their lives if they did or just more disturbed that life can be quite unfair, which might lead to even more complaining?  This parenting thing can be quite perplexing, as is life in general.

How should we live in this often crazy, confusing, sad world that is full of such extremes and love and bliss and beauty all together?  One of my long-time friends, Jenn, was visiting us this past week and we discussed our preference and choice to try to see the best/positive in the world.  She said people sometimes criticize her for looking through “rose colored glasses”. I often get similar comments.  I told her I heard author Marianne Williamson remark about people saying the same thing to her and that she replied that she sees that as a compliment and that she has worked really hard at it!  Amen!

Jenn has certainly worked at it.  She was in a bad car accident several years ago that changed her life.  She has metal all down the left side of her body and walks with a slight limp.  She had a brain injury that has caused 3 seizures in the past 3 years.  Several events and changes have occurred in her life as a result.  Yet, these things that have happened to her do not define her.  My husband said she is the happiest depressed person he has ever met (she would’ve liked to have a family with kids of her own and/or a career).  My heart hurts to see my friend struggling to find her way, mostly alone.  Yet, she manages to keep an amazing attitude and zest for life… convincing us to go rafting on the Nantahala River near our home while she was here.  She passed it on the way to our house and when she arrived, she said, “I want to go rafting on the Nantahala!” with a huge smile full of excitement.  What a lovely example of “enjoying the journey.”