Live life with no regrets. Love the thought, but there has always been this nagging idea in my head that I’ve continued to push away, keeping a journal. This idea is back there with sorting laundry on Sunday and vacuuming behind the couch. How do people have time? Getting ready for bed involves me wanting to finish another chapter in my book, so I can relax and recharge my batteries for the day, not wind them back up again.
Instead of giving up chocolate for Lent, I decided to do something much more difficult; keep a journal. This is not just any journal. It’s a perpetual journal. My Type A personality and writer lifestyle are the two main reasons I have never kept a journal. I see a blank page as a canvas for making the impossible, possible. So I eliminated the intimidating, full white page and instead limited myself to two lines.
That’s right. Only two lines to write down my blessings, love, heartache and events for the day. A perpetual journal begins with the month and date, followed by a daily synopsis year after year. So under March 7 I will write, “2012: Blogged about my perpetual journal today and LOVED it.” Next year, on March 7 I will write, “2013: Best Day Ever.” And so on and so on until the journal is filled with a short summary of your life.
How to:
You can purchase a premade five-year journal, but what’s the fun in that? Instead I found a unique French sketchbook. I suggest taking time to window shop at your local bookstore or find a blank book that speaks to you online. To match the theme of my journal, I wrote the month date in colored pencil for the entire year in French. This is where you can get creative. You can use newspaper cutouts for the date, stamps, scrapbook stickers, magazine letters, etc. Writing or pasting the date can be tedious, but it’s a journal you can potential have for years to come, so make it count.
After that, write on! You can do the nightcap entries or like me, wait and write in your journal first thing in the morning about the previous day. What an encouraging way to wake up in the morning in such a busy world.
So if journaling is not your thing, skip the Lisa Frank spiral notebook and create a memory book as a future present to your presence. Perpetual journal: documenting days and reliving life year after year.
LBDujour 