Keep a Journal? Nah, just SKIP it!

Taking stock of your life can be enlightening.

Do you have a journal (or diary as it was known back in my younger years)? I've tried over the years to keep several journals - from food journals to thankfulness journals. I probably have nine or ten beautiful notebooks stuck in corners throughout our home (because using a $0.25 regular notebook just isn't good enough, ha!). I've just never been able to stick with it.

Nashville, TN - Years ago, someone on the radio spoke about keeping a gratefulness, or thankfulness journal. So what got me going on this? Did I experience some great epiphany? Not really. Did some family near miss make me drag out my notebook and start keeping the journal? No. Was I guilted into it by my mother? Thankfully, no. I had my precious 8 year-old daughter, Samantha (Sam as we call her), to thank.

She skipped. Not as in skipping a stone across a pond (although something that simple is definitely worth entering into a journal), and not skipping school or church or any important event. She just skipped. You know, one foot in front of another with a little hop thrown in for good measure. I watched her at the park, as we made our way down a hill. I walked. Actually, I lumbered. It was not a particularly hot day.I just wasn't in any hurry to get to the bottom of the hill.

"Come on, Mom!" Sam invited. "Skip with me!"

Are you kidding? I thought to myself. I haven't skipped since I was... her age. Then I figured what the heck. Sure, there were teenagers there who snickered at the 38 year-old woman thoroughly making a fool of herself skipping, but as I grabbed my little girl's hand, all doubt and fear of rejection left my body. We skipped. All the way down the hill. Somehow, I was not completely out of breath when we reached the bottom. (I won't lie - I needed to sit down for a minute. But at least I didn't keel over.)

When do we start worrying about what others will think? When do we stop doing things just for fun?

So that night I sat down in front of my nightstand (knowing my bones would creak and pop the instant I tried to stand up), and dug through the pictures and papers stuffed in the drawer. After a minute or two, I found a brand new journal.

The point of a thankfulness journal is to write down, at the end of each day, three things for which you are thankful. The tricky thing is you're not supposed to repeat the same stuff day after day. Most people tend to start out with the big stuff - thankful for husbands or wives, or children or wonderful in-laws (I slid that one in pretty good, didn't I?). Pretty soon, though, one is required to put some real thought into the journal, and keep up with it, even when there are days when it seems there is nothing to be thankful for.

So, with the sincerest of intentions, I made my first entry.

First? Skipping. I'm thankful for skipping.

Second, my daughter who taught me that it's the simple things in life that bring the greatest joy.

Third, well, since the first two were much more prolific and poetic than I needed to be in the very first journal entry, I decided to come back down to reality. So third is the chocolate bar I consumed the night before. Every once in a while you have to be thankful for chocolate.

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