Postcards from the Funny Farm

How is your private world doing? I think of mine like a garden. Sometimes it is well kept, all the weeds are pulled and the soil is fresh and black because I have given it my daily care. Other times it is a mass of thorny weeds and I can’t even see what’s been growing, beautiful or otherwise. One way to order your private world is through journaling. You can do it privately just for yourself, or you can do what I do: journal online.

By keeping a record of your thoughts and dreams, you identify them. When you do that you have a way to get there. Unless you take the time to analyze yourself, you can never really understand why you are great and why you do the things you do. Journaling is like reading a book you wrote in which you are the hero. Sometimes it means being real and showing your darker sides, but mostly it’s a way to show the best in yourself. As you write your thoughts and dreams, you get closer to them. You can look back and see how your paradigms shift through time. If you haven’t written them down, you only have shadows of memories. It’s not always a pleasure to go back and read your thoughts. Sometimes the delete key is your best friend. But if you are like me, you keep the old posts for posterity. Watching your prose mature and reflect the person you are always becoming is a gratifying thing. It will help you order your private world like gardening. And you can do it anytime 24/7. Will you be a gardener by night or day? Either way, I hope you’ll experience the gratification of journaling.