The Lonely Bookshelf of Empty Journals
Chronicling Life
It recently occurred to me that I have been keeping a journal for 30 years (I know!) and I still continue to write in one. Admittedly, some years I may have written more than others, but I have managed to fill a bookshelf with several notebooks nevertheless. Journaling is a way to chronicle my life’s journey and record key events. Reading old entries evokes many emotions, thoughts, and memories. Comparing yesterday’s journal entry to what I wrote when I was 17 makes me realize how much my life has changed and how much I have grown.
Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment
until it becomes a memory.
A journal, or diary, is more than a book where you write words on paper. Through the years, my journals were often my sounding boards, my friends and even my therapists. Writing out what I am feeling or thinking and what is happening around me chronicles my history, cementing it to time. My journal is my keepsake tool.
My Never Ending Love of Notebooks
I love journals and notebooks. My family would say my obsession borders on addiction. If I am at Dollarama or Indigo, it is game over the minute I pass the journal display. I rarely leave without at least one new book. There are currently a dozen new journals sitting on a bookshelf in my room, waiting to be filled.
Starting a new journal is exciting. The sound of the spine cracking for the first time. The lure of that first blank page ready for the next part of my life’s story to be told. A new day, a new page. The possibilities.
A Year to Remember
This year my journal is filling up with stories of unprecedented new experiences. Stories of family illnesses, a pandemic, a world in lockdown, face masks, schools closing, and a crashing economy; about stages of reopening and fear and dread of a lurking second wave. Entries that reflect the inconceivable times we are in, and how these events are affecting me, and those around me. And the most urgent questions, such as if we will get back to normal, or do we brace for a “new” normal. We are nearly seven months through 2020, and many of us are ready for it to be over, to forget this year altogether.
Sometimes we’re tested not to show our weaknesses,
but to discover our strengths.
However, we should not be so quick to forget 2020. This year, countries have learned where their strengths and weaknesses lie. This year, teachers at all levels of schools have found new ways to instruct students. This year, hundreds of companies across the country have realized that allowing workers to work remotely keeps businesses open. This year, Canadians have learned to come together as a nation, and as a race, because we are fighting a common enemy. If we disregard 2020, we will also be ignoring some valuable lessons in humanity. It’s a new world that is changing daily. These events need to be remembered and recorded. When the pandemic ends (and it will someday), I believe we will emerge a better, more connected, and compassionate society. In six months, when the clock strikes midnight and 2021 rolls around, how are you going to remember 2020? My journal will make sure I do.
