For a long time, I’d been worried by how little I remembered about my
own past. In particular, because one of my resolutions is to
“Appreciate this time of life,” I felt the impulse to keep a record of
the pattern of our days (not to mention the funny things my children
said) so I’d remember this time of life later.
The idea of keeping a proper journal was far too overwhelming, so I decided instead to keep a “one-sentence journal.”
Each night, I write one sentence (well, actually, usually it’s three
or four sentences, but by calling it a “one sentence journal” I keep my
expectations realistic) about what happened that day to me, the Bear Man,
and the girls.
I’ll forget the huge amount of meat that the Bear Man grills every weekend.
My hope is that, years from now, when I’m trying to remember what
life was like at this point, I can look back at my one-sentence journal.
Of course, I’ve missed a lot of days. Although I’ve been trying to
keep it up for a year, it still hasn’t quite solidified into a habit.
I’ve let ten days go by, without thinking about the journal once. But
still, I’ve managed to get a lot of memories down on paper.
I’m going to use my beloved Amazon.com to buy pretty journals, one for the Bear Man and me, one for each of the girls.
My path-breaking happiness formula holds that to be happy, you must
think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an
atmosphere of growth.
Keeping this journal is a project that adds to my happiness in all of
these ways: it helps keep happy memories vivid (because I’m much more
inclined to write about happy events than unhappy events); it gives me a
reason to thinking lovingly about my family; it’s manageable, so it
doesn’t make me feel burdened; it makes me feel like a good mother who
is passing happy memories along to my children; and it gives me a
feeling of accomplishment and progress.
I hope everyone has a beeeeeautiful day!
