On Journal Writing

Sometime this summer, I stopped writing every day in my journal. It wasn't a conscious decision, but over time I came to realize that I did so for a number of reasons.

First, I had written nearly every day for 25 years. And I realized that, on some level, I was using it as a "counting up" of bad and good things that happened; for me that meant I was never letting them go, to just be moments, but stringing them together into some sort of "meaning" which, often as not, made me feel rather grim.

Weirdly....I don't really miss it. I feel freer in some ways. I do find my recall of specific days is not as sharp, but that's often an okay thing.