Dear Diary

Today’s post is quite late due to life but here is the “D” edition of the A to Z Challenge.

How many of us kept a diary as children?

I certainly did, or at least I tried. I never seemed to be able to keep up with the dated entries.

And, those little ones with the locks, my heart would skip a beat every time I saw one. Receiving one for Christmas was the best gift ever.

None of those little books are still around.

Journaling is a large part of my life. At last count, I have no less than 6 journals that I am currently using.

1. I have a spiritual journal. If I have an internal struggle, this is the place where I put all of my thoughts.
2. For each of my large stories (i.e. novels), I have a separate journal. Each of these books holds all of my thoughts, research and plans for the piece I am working on. Currently there are four of them on my shelf, along with smaller notebooks for the novella I am working on.
3. A purple journal sits on my desk at work to hold all of my to do lists, which continues to grow.
4. My everyday bag contains a few journals. These journals include: a basic writing journal for all of those ideas that come along. A date type of journal for notes from any meetings or scheduling. Finally, an actual dated notebook to keep track of personal things, this book also contains to do lists.
5. On my nightstand, I have a dream journal. I seldom use it but it is there nevertheless.
6. Tucked away in my desk is a gratitude journal. I use this one the least although that doesn’t mean I am not grateful. I simply forget to write them down. I should work on that.

One of the reasons to keep a diary is to keep track of the large events in our lives. A friend keeps a 5-year journal for each one of their children. Keeping the memories, even if only a few lines, is important as we tend to forget as the years go by.

Though most of my journals have very little to do with events, although I may write about those somehow, I can still track my life through them.

This tracking is what is important to me. Seeing how far I’ve come, helps me to realize how far I can go.

What types of diary’s or journal’s do you keep?