Journalling. Otherwise known as a vital aspect of my sanity.

I’ve gotten myself into the consistent habit of journalling every day, or at least every two days. It’s been life-giving, really. I’ve found that the more I do it, the better I process things, and the closer I become in my relationship with Jesus. I find at times that He’ll guide my pen and my thoughts, and the result is lovely.

My journalling is a conduit for me to express my life and my thoughts, and in the process, also a chronicle for myself. It’s where I can look back and see the areas I’ve grown in, the struggles I went through in the past, see the both wonderful and not-so-wonderful experiences I’ve had and how I wrote about it. How I dealed. It’s as accurate interpretation of my thoughts as there ever will be, I suppose.

There’s even been times when I’ve selected passages from it to share with others too, when I’ve thought it beneficial or encouraging for them. That hasn’t been too often, and actually only with one other person I trust implicitly, since most of what I write there is often quite personal.

Other times, after I’ll end up writing a section I’ll make a note saying, “Bloggable,” and it later turns into a solid post after I’ve polished and shined the nugget all up.

Sometimes my journalling turns into prayerful monologuing, and sometimes it’s interjected with wide gaps in thought as I’ve had to pause and simply think more.

Here’s a few shots of both curent and past journals:

Exhibit A: the journal I started early 2015 when I really started to get serious about journalling. It lasted me until right before I came to Korea in February of this year. It was a nice, Hobbit edition Moleskin I was gifted during a Christmas past from friends, now complete with lots of scribbling, things taped and stapled and stuffed inside. I loved it for so long and was sad, yet satisfied, to see it filled.

Exhibit B: This was a rougher, also leatherbound, journal I got at the comic expo my family and I have gone to for years. I was saving it especially for when I went abroad. I didn’t know when that would be when I bought it, but I knew it would happen. This one was also stuffed with papers, stamped, doodled on, bookmarked with washi tape and scribbled full.

Exhibit C: this one I picked up in, you guessed it, Seoul. It was a nice little museum gift shop, and I fell in love with all the many little illustrations scattered amongst its pages. The little rounded Superman curl at the top is indeed a Superman curl – on a nicely painted, clear-coated popsicle stick bookmark I got from my parents as part of my birthday gift this summer (along with a really fun stormtrooper one!) Since this journal didn’t have a ribbon built in, I needed the popsicle stick’s handiness. I also tried slipping a vinyl zippered pocket in front of the back page to keep any little snippets I want to stuff away. I started this one only last month.

Exhibit D: Now this one I was pretty excited about. On one trip to Seoul, I found a display of notebooks and stationary from a Japanese company, Midori Traveller Notebooks. And of course, the leather was part of what really got me! That, and how you could buy some extra additions, such a clear zippered section, extra paper, and a brown cardstock folder section, among other things. It was expensive (and out of stock), and I simply couldn’t justify buying one. But! When I found a similar display on my recent Japan trip…well…here we are. I use this one as an on-the-go note-taker and snippet-preserver.

I’m sure my next journal will also have some component of leather. I don’t know exactly what it is about it, but I adore brown leather. And the smell…so good. That might sound strange, but it takes me somewhere. Somewhere with adventure. Somewhere without frills and perfection, both of which I have tossed from my life. Perhaps it stems from the elongated cowboy obsession I went through as a child and never entirely grew out of.

Who knows. I could ponder it further…or I could just leave the lid of that thought closed and simmering, smelling vaguely familiar and delightful and mysterious.

I think I’ll do that.