There is always a meaning

My newly gained knowledge: Before the use of refrigeration, sailors would board giant turtles onboard their ships. The sailors found that turtles could live a long time without food. This allowed the sailors to always have a fresh supply of meat on-hand that they didn’t need to freeze or feed. (Sort of a morbid fact, I know, but I still found it as being new information and pretty interesting).

I always start my journal entries off by listing the things I’m grateful for (this is a great exercise recommended by Christine Kane’s blog). I then go onto to write about the new facts/lessons I’ve learned for the day (i.e. turtles living on sailor ships). After exercising these practices, I then usually go into my more traditional form of journal writing.

When I write in my journal, often times I seem to have the idea stuck in my head that I have to have something “important” to write about. Yesterday, however, I couldn’t find anything poignant or poetic or enlightening to write about so I just started to write about the small random things going on in my life and thoughts.

Turns out that nothing that I wrote about yesterday lead to any “breakthroughs” in thought, nor did it turn out to be poetic or seemingly insightful, but what I did learn is that I just enjoyed the act of writing. I enjoyed the transformation of words in my mind being transferred to paper via a pen in my hand. I enjoyed the basic art-form of creating symbols that had messages that could be read by others. I especially enjoyed listening to my wind-chimes haphazardly sing as a gentle breeze floated through the house to make the legs of the chimes dance.

So, even though last night’s journal seemed like it started out pointless, with me writing about my sadness of Andre Agassi’s retirement, I still gained a lesson. I still found an artistic release and I still enjoyed a wonderful habit. There is always a meaning in the things you do.