Hey -- is that the date due card (in photo below this post) missing from my library book? Let me guess, you've got my wallet from 1972 pasted to a journal page somewhere too? Thank you, as always, for the inspiration.

Wow, what inspiration, I've always kept a written journal (well since I was 9 I have!) but I've never even considered making my journals more visual. I often have so many ideas or things I'm trying to describe when a bit of glue and imagination could do the job for me. Thanks!

keri
you are the journal queen...i can't wait to hear all about the cristo exhibit.
hope new york is going well.
cheers
rhya

Man Keri, you always give me so many things to think about - I am grateful to you for that. I am one of those that sucks at writing in a journal - tons of started ones that ended as quick as they began. But the idea of letting go of ego in a visual journal is really interesting to me...thanks for kick starting me again.

Although I've never kept a visual journal, I kept a diary for many, many years, but stopped just before I had my son (almost eight years ago). I think maybe it was that I no longer had the time to be quite as self-obsessed, or perhaps I had other ways of expressing myself. A lot of my old diaries were written in particularly hard and unpleasant times in my life, and reading through them made me feel terribly sad for the struggling person that I was then. About a year ago I looked through them all again (but I couldn't bear to read them) and then made the decision to get rid of them all. It was the most amazing feeling, like the lifting of a burden. I won't forget any of what happened, but I think the diaries were more about being able to get the angst out of myself, and were never really intended to be some precious record. Now that they are gone, I have started writting a little again, including some visual stuff, but now it is something I enjoy, and I buy nice journals and good pens ...

When I kept a diary as a young girl, I often wrote what I *hoped* would be true, especially if I felt like it wasn't exactly what I hoped. I read them now and I am embarrassed at how much I glossed over the truth to myself. When I write now in a journal, I worry about my "authenticity"...and I let my ego get in the way (well put). I can't seem to relax enough to just let it flow. I do morning pages and that helps...but then I worry about other people reading what I have written...how will they know what I really meant? I keep putting up roadblocks and I don't know why. No message here...just a thanks for putting some of your thoughts down so I don't feel so alone...obviously I need to think on this for a while.

This is such a timely post for me -- thank you. I have kept journals for over 33 years (omigawd -- am I *really* that old already ?!). A few years ago I was so uninspired and bored by my journals, which were 90% writing, that I started to keep a visual journal in a book that I made. Since then I have continued with that form, mostly drawings, paintings, collage and tiny bits of writing, mostly lists. It was my favorite thing to do -- work in my journal.

Then, this past October, my 3-year old dog died, very suddenly and unexpectedly. She was the love of my life, this sweet little yellow lab. The journal just stopped, as dead as the young dog. I keep trying to re-start it, to rev myself up to get back to it. I even made another journal, my 5th in this new series, so I could really start over. I have made a few attempts, but it isn't fun, and it isn't singing the way the others did.

I am curious about this. It's an interesting journey, grief. Sometimes we turn to our journals to process; I seem to have turned away. I'm interested in how I will find my way back, and what role this shutting off from the personal creative outlet I so enjoyed plays in my grieving.

I *am* surprised, Keri! But pleasantly so. I can certainly relate to your initial journal paralysis. I felt similary when I made the change from straight text (this was always easy for me--I'd just babble on and on and on, filling books upon books) to more of a visual record. That's when my nervousness struck. When I thought it had to be a work of art.

That's why I love the Adbuster's quote -- and your site -- so much. I am reminded to enjoy the process more than the outcome. I get to start my 6th visual diary this week, and I am going to add a whole lot more color this time around. I can't wait!

Thank you, thank you, and so much love, xo, c.

Have you ever read The Artist's Way....by Julia Cameron? She suggests using a journaling method called morning pages...I've done pages every day for ll years....since my husband was diagnosed with cancer.(He is a survivor...and an artist....we believe that his art making helped in his amazing recovery.) I think the writing saved my life. I appreciate visiting you each day....Thank you for sharing yourself with art and writing. Susan

Thanks for your generosity in sharing your methods and madness! Good madness, of course...

oh my. how nice to realize that my various attempts at starting a journal only to stop because of fear of who might read it, what people might think, wondering why anyone would ever care about it and so on are not alone.

it's strange that the thought of just having one for the exercise of doing it, recording moments never occured to me. i have always been paralyzed by the blank page and having something worthy of being recorded there. silly really.

i am thankful for your honestly and almost always leave your site feeling something genuine...sometimes sadness...many time happiness but feeling something. thank you for that.

My journals are stored in a big plastic container (the size of a small crate). After reading your post, I decided they need to be out where I can see them and re-read them. I'm taking them out of storage and bringing them to the shelves with all my other art and writing books. No longer kept hidden!
;~) Sharon

I used to write journals, but I realised the way i wrote in them was that I assumed that someone else would read them and judge me for it. I was never able to write if I was angry with someone of for what reason or about anything that meant anything to me.

So I stopped. I might try again. Maybe if I give it a try again, I might enjoy it..and if I don't Ill just stop. I will not have lost anything.

I love the reoccurring circles on different pages. I think I should print some of these out and put them on the wall. I miss being surrounded by your work... and you... and your husband...

and Mookie

Keri,
I just wanted to say thanks for inspiring me not only to be creative but to be honest and not to worry so much about what I'm doing but rather just doing it. It's great that you answer the more technical questions about preservation etc. for those of us who are still rather obsessed with getting it right even though we struggle not to worry so much about that!

Jane

I really resonate with this entry. I started keeping journals when I was in grade nine (a few attempts prior to that, but grade 9 steadily). Despite the great lapses in entries, I came away from my last year of university with 65 journals! Then, I quit writing for about 5 years.

I really felt that if I wasn't even going to write the truth - the whole truth - even to myself, there was no point.

I still have those journals. It was my intention to burn them. Most days it still is. But I was looking at a few entries the other day and realized that the truth is not just in what I wrote but in what I withheld or the way that I wrote.

You see, I don't forget a lot of what happened. So, what is revealed in those pages are the processes I underwent to manage those struggles and the evidence of my growth incomparison to where I am now.

I also find it curious that I struggled as much with "audience" and censorship in my personal journals as I do with my online journal. I think disclosure is really my quest to reveal me to mySelf.

I am really glad you wrote this post. I have started my first journal and was thinking the same thing about preserving the pages...do I need to or not? I also am so fearful of starting and of being inadequate. I realized It is all about creating and not worrying about how long it lives. What matters is that it did.