Anne Faye

I started keeping a journal on December 31, 1989, shortly after my 15th birthday. The first one was a Christmas present from my parents. I had been admiring blank books in my local bookstore all that year and was so thrilled to get one. It seemed so full of potential. I started keeping a journal because I knew I had a poor memory and I wanted to remember how it felt to be fifteen. Interestingly, it took me a little while to actually trust my journal. I started out by writing fictionalized names and changing details a bit, but within a couple months, I settled into a more truthful routine. My plan, even at 15, was always to bequeath these to a granddaughter someday. Very presumptuous of me, I know, to imagine a future in which I have a granddaughter, and to think that she would want these! At 15, I couldn't even imagine being 20, much less 40, yet here I am. I have now filled 23 of these books, writing on average once a week. In the pages are also tucked various memorabilia of...

In the event my recent posts on The Journal Keeper have you inspired to start journaling (the old-fashioned kind - in books, as opposed to blogging), here is a link to a store with some incredibly beautiful journals. I saw them advertised recently, and they took my breath away: http://www.figmentsstudio.com/journals.htm . Of course, one does not need such expensive journals to write in. I've been happy with a variety of blank books over the years. Some were gifts; others were picked up at bookstores; some at a dollar store. All are precious. Other people are perfectly happy writing in spiral bound notebooks or composition books. If you want to journal, you will find a way to do it.

At the library last week, The Journal Keeper: A Memoir by Phyllis Theroux called to me. Despite the fact that I have a pile of books waiting for me to read them, I picked it up. The name itself spoke to me. How could I resist? I read half of it today. "Savored" would be a more accurate word as I drank it in and enjoyed every moment. The book covers Theroux's life from 2000 - 2005. She's in her sixties, caring for her mother who is in her eighties. Theroux is a woman coming to terms with what it means to live and what it means to die. She deals with questions we all must face.While she and I have very different faith walks, she is a woman longing for a deeper connection to the spiritual . She is also a writer, and as such, I recognize a kindred spirit. I, too, am a journal-keeper. I've been journaling for over twenty-one years now. So much of my life is in those bound books. I pick them up and read the pages and I am back in that moment of time, simple moment...