5 Year Journals

Greetings for a bright(er) 2021!  Today I have reached the end of my 5 year journal which has charted daily happenings 2016-2020.  I started journaling in 1996 but have to admit that the journals only give 4-6 tight lines for each day.  Sometimes (as in these non-happening Covid days) this is more than enough space!  On other days I have needed to squeeze recording big moments.   As I look back I realize several things:

1.  My handwriting is both appalling and small.  Really bad. To read earlier entries I now often need a magnifying glass and even then cannot decipher some of the words.  Clearly they meant something to me at the time.  This is the most frustrating find.
2.  Nothing makes clearer the slowing of pace than to read of past life in a (Baptist) fast lane from early years at Spurgeon's College, through heady days in Chicago, to retirement in Cambridge.  I cannot believe what we packed into consecutive days back then.  A Wild 25 years!
3. The jogging of memory that partially deciphered scribbles can still provoke - especially odd happenings of little consequence
4. Overall, profound gratitude for the goodness of God shepherding us through these years and the kindness of friends who populate the pages.

I am glad I kept the discipline going through the years and though I have to wait a few weeks for a fresh journal (courtesy of Amazon) I shall try to keep going - with awareness both of the need for tidier writing and of the unlikelihood that will ever happen. 

May you have a really good fulfilling and healthy New Year!