I recently finished the “line a day for three years” journal my niece gave me. Each day, it gave me a prompt for a quick response. I didn’t fill it in religiously every day but would almost always go back to complete the previous days’ questions. When I was not travelling, I rarely left it longer than a few days. It was nice to have – I felt as if someone, somewhere, cared what my answers were!
The three years I had this were not my best. They were far from my worst three years, but nonetheless, during the last three years I broke my ankle and was pretty much house-ridden for six weeks, my mother died, my mother-in-law died, I felt weighed down by the responsibilities of caring for our in-laws, I was on an unsuccessful job hunt, and had only one big trip to enjoy anticipating. So yes, as I flick through the book now, I can see that for much of the time I was feeling gloomy. Even when I wasn’t, a lot of my responses were about my in-laws. Or Trump. I’m sure you get it!
But there were happy notes in it too. Questions about funny things that had happened recently reminded me and made me laugh, including things my husband had said. Also, prompts about the last compliment I was given came up about every four months, so I had to find compliments a number of times. Sometimes it was easy, sometimes I couldn’t think of anything. But a lot were blog related, so thank you to anyone who has ever said something nice here or on my other blogs. It means a lot! Two compliments mentioned that I didn’t look my age, which I find hard to believe. And my great-nephew said that I was funny. Three years later, I’m still not sure if that was a compliment or not!
One of my favourite prompts was to note what the last nice thing you did just for yourself. My responses were always simple. A coffee and some time with a book. Taking some photographs. Successful diet days. Mini-moments, just for me. They’re good to note, to be grateful for. Otherwise, with everything else going on they can be easy to miss, easy to forget.
I enjoyed having these external prompts* and those few moments to write in the book before I would start whatever task I had come to my desk to complete. But now it’s finished, what can I replace it with?
* I know that sounds hypocritical, given my regular “blog posts I won’t be writing” about prompts that miss their mark.
Well done! I don’t think I would have persevered over 3 years answering prompts like this, but I am glad you were able to do it.
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Your last three years sound really difficult. I’m sorry you had to go through so much.
(BTW, if someone tells me I’m funny, I ALWAYS take it as a compliment!)
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Levenger makes a beautiful five year journal which they will ship overseas. I just finished my first one at the end of 2018 and am on to my second. They have no prompts, just a page with space for five years of entries (about four or five lines for each day). I definitely have mixed feelings about whether I want to have remembered some things so well (most of 2016) but there are also all these lovely, almost ordinary moments that I would have completely forgotten about without it. I’m hooked. My only regret is that I didn’t start them sooner!
I’m sorry these years have been such hard ones. Wishing you more lightness ahead.
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Oh that sounds like a good idea. I’m off to search for them. Thanks!
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That’s so cool! I do think there’s value in recalling your thoughts during even the gloomy times. You’ll be able to look back and see what you’ve come through!
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I always start doing those journals with great intentions but… I know there are a couple of them in a box in our storage locker. Maybe I should dig them out?? I used to be much better at journal-keeping… these days, I kind of feel like my blog is my journal — although it’s mostly related to just one part of my life.
Time to get another one, maybe?
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