Journaling

     “When your heart speaks, take good notes.” That quote which is the title of a book is my chosen definition for journaling. I take lots of notes and have them all over the place—on my desk, on my reading table, tucked in my spiritual reading books and in my Bible. I underline phrases and write responses in the columns of my Living With Christ, a monthly paperback containing the daily readings for the Eucharist. I write longer “notes”, of course, in my journals of which I have many.

     I love to write and in journaling there is no stress as there is in writing an article for Leaven, our newsletter, or in preparing a reflection on the Scriptures for Evening Prayer. In journaling I simply write whatever comes from within—a prayer of thanksgiving or things I’m worried about or things that appear from without like the large beautiful stag wearing antlers like a crown and strutting along our hillside like royalty.

    For me journaling is revelatory. I’m often surprised by what comes off the tip of my pen. I say to myself, “Did I write that?” or “Where did that come from?” Writing is like having a spiritual director or counselor,; it helps objectify, put things in front of us that we didn’t know we were thinking. I think of Julian of Norwich, a spiritual director in her day, who said,” I tell them what they told me and they say, ‘My, how wise you are!’”

     My journal is a record of the past. It helps me remember events, important or not, happy or sad. Events that I may otherwise have forgotten like the treasured conversation I had with my brother shortly before he died or the haikus I wrote sitting alongside the Pacific Ocean. Poems which in retrospect are not all that bad!

     The author of the book that is my opening quote is Susan Borkin and the subtitle of the book is: the Healing Power of Writing. I would not have thought of writing or journaling as healing but doing what one loves and expressing one’s self honestly and freely can contribute to wholeness and self-knowledge. Teresa of Avila wrote something really good about self-knowledge. I can’t recall it at the moment but I’m sure it’s in one of my journals.

               Sr. Justina Franxman, OSB