The Good Patrons of 750 Words

1 cup

I’ve been a journaler, on and off, my whole life. As a little kid I had a “Holly Hobby” journal with a padlock and fell in love with fountain pens & bottles of ink when I was about 6. Expression through the written word has always been important to me. When I was at a low 13 years ago, suffering some ill health and feeling unsure where life was headed for me, I plunged into the artists way… I still believe this was a vital part of my healing.
Since then however, I’ve been known to “recommend” journaling, more than doing it. Not sure why, I’d get in a groove and then stop. Not sure if I was insecure about my pages being found or what, I did an awful lot of shredding that is for sure!
But this year, up against some life changes and feeling insecure again, (and noting that I was asking others to journal but not always walking my talk)… I revisited this lovely site, which I had heard of a while back but never dove in.
I started just before the close of 2015 and with all the incentive badges and the “threat of going back to day zero” has kept me true to my word, to write every single day in 2016 (and hopefully beyond, now I have the dangling carrot of 1,000 days!)
My morning writing is rarely, if ever profound, and I have not even once looked back on my writing. I feel secure that “if anything happened to me” my words will remain private and secure and all my venting will die with me!
Some days my daily purge is utterly boring, more of an essay style shopping list really, and other days I sit with the deeper emotions that flutter around my heart and soul. No matter what, I have such satisfaction “getting it done” – even on the days when I had to leave the house really early!
I love the pie chart of emotions, the way my mood is determined, and how I get to see m most frequently used words. I was badge obsessed and I have to say when I got to day 100 and realized my next badge would not be for another 200 days(!) I was a little worried about my motivation, but now it is entirely driven by not wanting to start all over again!

Thank you for this website, this encouragement, even this “community” (even though I don’t engage really)… the quiet accountability aspect of it is quite marvelous.

Let us keep writing – getting it off our chests is so very beneficial for our health and wellness….

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