An underutilized tool...

I moved back to the woods recently. I come from the woods, somewhere way out there, in Idaho. As a kid I spent most of my time among the trees and the wildlife. Then as I grew up I decided there was more to life than that. For some stupid reason, I moved to the village, then to the town, and then to the city. There was nothing in any of those places for me. 

Now that I have aged, and I am a lot older, and a little bit wiser, I realize that it’s not about the state you are in, the place you reside. It’s about the state of mind you are in. I was never in a healthy state of mind in the city. All around me was unhealthy noise. It got old as I got old. 

That being said, living in the woods comes with it's own set of challenges. It can be lonely, it can be too quiet at times, there is isolation here, and isolation is not always easy to bare. One must have the tools to deal with it. Loneliness is also a very trying experience, but it helps you to recognize the value of a visit, the importance of company, and the preciousness of each moment spent with old friends. There is something about being deprived of them that allows a person to see just how wonderful they really are. Lastly, for me at least, it has only ever been in the quietest stillness that I can see my inner truth, furthermore know it for what it is, maybe someday I won't need the quiet to be confident in it's value.  

Like I said, it’s important to have tools in place that allow us to deal with the island (s) we all live on. Alone, here in the woods, it is easier to see the islands I frequent. There are many tools in my box. The one I write about today is one I have written about before; journaling. 

I have done this off and on for years, in fact, my whole life but never for a whole year at a time (maybe 2024 will be that year). When I was younger, it was a very regular practice- daily, sometimes more than once a day, depending on what happened that day. I still have a great many of those journals. Some I have since thrown out for a host of reasons, most were because of water damage and mold. Some because they were from phases of my life which were down right ‘cringe’. So I read them one last time and committed them to the void. 

If you are a writer and you don’t journal, you are missing out on one of the most important aspects of writing. It’s like running a marathon without warming up and stretching. You will most likely pull a hamstring while running that race. 

Journaling can open you up and get you 'unstuck'. I find it to be one of the most effective ways to treat the dreaded ‘writer’s block’. This is also why I try and journal in the morning, before my day starts, before the dreams fade completely. Sometimes, the best ideas come during the earlier journaling sessions. I liken being a writer to being a conduit for ideas, a lightning rod to keep the madness from striking and burning down the whole damn forest. For me, lightning strikes in the very early hours of the morning. So I make sure I journal before the storm. 

Not only that, it's about quality, I get a good deal of my very best ideas when journaling, they are lovingly and desperately scribbled in the margins of my work. Some are in different ink, some are written sideways up the edge of the page because I ran out of room. All are highlighted in orange. Orange is my idea color, so I can go back through later and skip to the important parts. My point being, I was writing when they came to me, so I captured them.

Writing is an act of practice, the more we write the better we get at it. I find that on the days I journal, I write better. The more I do it the higher the quality of the things I write. This is important, a musician practices to get good, it's very much the same way with a writer. The more we write the better we get. 

However, not all of our writing should be made public. Journaling is a good way to keep the private things private, and certain memories inside, yet also not inside. It's a way of talking to your self and processing those things that are troubling, without troubling other people with them. Let’s face it, it’s not healthy to bourdon people all the time with things they didn’t experience with you. Journaling is kind of a “mind enema” to clear out the garbage so you can sort the treasure from the trash and take lessons from the events of your life. These can then be refined and added to our work as gems woven into the work. 

So, if you are a writer, or for that matter a sack of heaving flesh, quivering and undulating, and you know how to read and write, I suggest journaling. I especially suggest it for the writer, the musician, and the artist. Those people that need an outlet for their 'tisms'. Journaling is one of the most underutilized tools a creator could have and use. If you haven't picked up a journal in a while, try it again. If you have never done it, get a good pen and some paper and start word vomiting.

Until next time...

Cheers!