Joy - Genesis 3 Homework - Lesson 1

My Daily Journal - A Journey in Writing

For as long as I have been able to read and write, I have found writing to be a joy, pastime, and a release. Pen and paper have become my confidante and a way to express the deepest and most personal thoughts and feelings that originate from my heart and soul. As a small girl I possessed a purple diary, completed with lock and key, where my childhood dreams and heartaches were recorded. Even as I grew older, journals took the place of the diary, and I still possess those journals, filled with the smiles, tears, joys, and fears of a teenage girl.

As I entered adulthood, I still never left the practice of keeping a journal, finding in those pages a quiet sanctuary where expression could be freely given without repression. Many moments of happiness and excitement have been recorded as well as moments of darkness, bleakness, quailing, and despair. Looking back over a shelf of pages written by my own hand, those words have become more than just a journal - they have become a journey. Not only can I trace through them the journey of my life, but also my journey as a writer.

You may wonder how my diaries and journals have anything to do with my skills as a writer. Actually, they have deeply impacted my writing. Through the years as I would write, I continued to fall in love with writing. I learned the important lesson of sticking with a project, how to choose appropriate words, and how to communicate emotion and paint a vivid picture with just paper and pen. In writing I found my solace and my gift. I was challenged to take that passion and love for writing and turn it into something more than just a journal.

I know I am not alone in my use of a journal as a writing tool. There have been many great writers before me who have also kept journals. In some cases we have had the opportunity to read not only the works of these writers, but their journals, which give us such a profound glimpse into their writing. So, yes, I believe that all through my life, my journals have greatly impacted my writing. Perhaps they have been the breath of my writing, for in the depths of emotion in those journals came the inspiration for some the most important compositions I have ever written.

New Word:

Quailing - "to tremble with or feel fear or apprehension" (Encarta Dictionary)