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November 18, 2005
The Joy of Journaling
Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. Henri Nouwen
"Know thyself" means: devote time each day to studying yourself. ferreting out your weaknesses, working at self-improvement, purifying your immortal soul. Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin, quoted in J. Meisl, "Haskalah"
How many of you have discovered the joy of journaling? I was fortunate (though I didn't think so at the time!) to have a high school English teacher who required each of his students to make a daily entry in a journal and turn it in at the end of each week. If we didn’t make an entry, we had an "F" averaged in with the rest of our grades for that semester.
To keep up my GPA, I initially made entries such as: Today the sun rose. Yesterday the sun set. I washed my hair and now it’s as springy as ever….and so on. I kept this up until one day in study hall, as I began to make my daily one line entry, I began thinking about a lively discussion my parents and I had had the night before and I began to unload in my journal about why I felt at age 17 that parents didn’t have a clue about what life was really all about and other typical complaints that most adolescents feel when they think they are ready to be out on their own.
After writing for the entire period, I realized this was a great way to dump my thoughts and feelings and sort things out. So I began to keep two journals--one that I turned into the teacher and one for my personal use and I have been writing in them ever since.
Investing 5 to 10 minutes a day can be a great way to baby step into this habit. It’s a lot less expensive than therapy and is guaranteed to promote increased self awareness and spiritual insight. Here’s a more recent entry that I thought might show you how what we think matters at 17 can change by the time we are 57. Enjoy!
12 Nov 2005
How do I entice and enable others to experience what I feel when I pray? How do I help you, the reader of these words, to believe that there really is no other earthly sensation that can compare with the state of rapture and true bliss that I believe is available to any of us who will honestly make knowing and experiencing the love of God the true and highest priority of our lives?
As I have written so many times before, becoming one with God’s love is better, yet similar to the joy and ecstasy of spiritually connected married sexual union. I do not believe the bliss of this union with God’s love is or can be self-generated, but is reserved for the faithful who truly make the pursuit of truth—obedience, self-mastery, service, learning what matters most and what doesn’t—the focus and prime directive of how they choose to invest their time.
Again, I say—I write—encourage—do the "Big 5." Set aside time at the beginning of each day to exercise your body, mind, and soul—to meditate—to become still—to truly know for yourself if God is real—what it really feels like to make genuine contact—and to know as well as be infused with the faith, desire, and power to do His will in your next 24 hours.
If I, Will Head, who has made so many mistakes and has had so many weaknesses to learn to overcome—can experience the bliss of the heavenly gift—and experience genuine contact with the Divine—so can you. Keep believing—keep doing the Big 5—keep learning—and He will show you all you need to know and do.
Posted by Will Head at November 18, 2005 12:32 AM