To become better at journaling is to grow.
I’m not saying that being a better journaler fits any specific mold. A good journaler doesn’t have to have neat handwriting. They don’t have to cover thousands of diaries with daily entries, never skipping a single day. They don’t have to bullet journal, or keep a day-to-day journal, or write about the people they wish to fall in love with.
A good journaler is honest with the pen and paper in their hand. They use journaling as a method to become more honest to themselves and to others in their lives. They are faithful and reflective in their art. They use journaling as a method to grow, in different ways and facets of their life.
One thing I’ve been attempting this year is trying to use journaling in that certain good way—to use it to grow. But I’m not a consistent journaler. I can’t keep a diary for longer than a few weeks. Even my bullet journals have some months missing from their pages.
One thing I’ve been doing this year is using journaling prompts in order to become more honest, faithful, and reflective in my writing. There are two main things I want to accomplish with this.
- I want to learn to be.
- I want to learn to stay.
The first, “being,” is the concept of living intently in the moment, in a manner that is beyond constraining concepts of time. Living with purpose aside from the constant ticking clocks around you. Madeleine L’Engle talks a lot about this in her book, “Walking on Water”.
The second, “staying,” is similar—the concept of staying within where you are, living without rushing to stay somewhere else. This is something I struggle to do: I struggle to live life as how it is, rather than living in order to prepare a life for a later time period.
I am challenging myself—and anyone else—to journal with purpose this month. These are thirty-one journaling prompts for the month of December to keep going.
- things I love about December
- something I miss from before quarantine
- ways I can show someone I love them
- a poem about winter
- if I could be anywhere in the world, I would go to…
- my favourite scent
- something I wish I knew when I was twelve
- something I wish I hadn’t learned
- every small thought on my mind right now
- the sweetest gift I’ve ever received
- something kind someone has done for me
- a role model in my life who inspires me
- something I miss from my childhood
- a song lyric that affects me and why it does
- something I lost that I wish I had
- a memory from 2014
- something that makes me feel free
- describe joy
- a tradition I would want to pass on to my children
- a prayer for my family + friends
- winter solstice: thoughts about sunlight
- a holiday tradition that is special to me
- if I could change something about Christmas, it would be…
- a Christmas memory I have
- things I love about Christmas
- my thoughts about the stars
- if 2020 was a person, I would tell them…
- something expected that happened this year
- a letter to my future self
- my favourite memories of 2020
- my goals for 2021
Keep wandering,
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