“It is an odd idea for someone like me to keep a diary; not only because I have never done so before, but because it seems to me that neither I—nor for that matter anyone else—will be interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen-year-old school girl.” —Anne Frank

“The diary is an art form just as much as the novel or the play. The diary simply requires a greater canvas; it is a chronological tapestry which, in its ensemble, or at whatever point it is abandoned, reveals a form and language as exacting as other literary forms.” —Henry Miller

“The diary taught me that it is in the moments of emotional crisis that human beings reveal themselves most accurately. I learned to choose the heightened moments because they are the moments of revelation.” —Anaïs Nin

“In the journal I do not just express myself more openly than I could to any person; I create myself.” —Susan Sontag

Today’s prompt is to write a journal entry about journaling…

My journaling is always hit and miss. Over my lifetime, I have written and lost or thrown out more journals than I can count. I wish someone would have nurtured my writing life as Suleika’s mother seemed to have done for her by giving her a journal to record her experiences when they moved to another country for a year.

The good thing I can say over my lifetime is that I have become less afraid of my words. There were journals, several at least, that I have memories of tearing pages out and destroying them so no one would ever be able to read them. (Me, perhaps?) I can only imagine how much I could have learned about myself had I saved those “scary” journals I wrote and didn’t even dare to reread myself. What did I say that I was so afraid of?

I often write a few pages in a new journal, then I lose interest or get too busy and neglect it. Later I will pull out the used pages and have a new journal for another purpose.

This year, since the Coronavirus shelter-in-place orders, I have had more time and have done more writing. (Interestingly, my one little word for 2020 was time; I wanted to value it and use it well. Covid-19 has given me more time and I am happily using well the extra time I have been given.)

I write prayers, poems, thoughts, learnings, and anything that interests me at the moment. Oftentimes, it is related to the political and cultural climate of the U.S. right now, even though I have been living 8,000 miles away from my U.S. home.

I started writing with the #100DaysofNotebooking challenge in January, and that really recharged me and made my journals more colorful and treasured. I do like writing in my journal, but I also like writing on my blog, as it is more portable and easier to keep than a lot of physical notebooks.

I enjoy writing with prompts, especially when I don’t have inspiration for the day. But given an idea that pops into my head, I can write up a storm and do.

Monday, Memorial Day in the U.S. and Day 90 in Bahrain, also the second day of Eid Al Fitr. This is Day 55 of The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad.