Earlier this afternoon, I did something I’ve been wanting to do for almost a month: I brewed a mug of tea and wrote in my journal. Between being sick and being buried in the usual mid-semester flood of student papers, I hadn’t written in my journal since November 3, an entry that chiefly chronicled the cold-turned-bronchitis I caught near the end of October:
I slept yesterday, a day-long nap in an attempt to make up for nights riddled with coughing. I sometimes think I’ll never get better–never regain my strength. How is it that something as simple as a cold or flu bug can lay me out so irrevocably, and for so long?
Blogging counts as a kind of journaling, but for me, no amount of blogging can replace the longhand pages I’m in the habit of keeping. For me, blogging is where I think out loud for a live audience, and writing in my paper journal is where I think solely for myself. For me, the strength and authenticity of my outer, public voice is rooted in this more personal, internal dialogue. My daily scribbles are where I figure things out for myself, and my blog reflects the end-result of such ruminations.
Blogging when I haven’t been journaling feels like performing without practicing: yes, a veteran musician or singer can perform for an audience without devoting private hours to her or his craft, but after a while, those public performances can become rote and shallow. My journal is where I find and strengthen my writerly voice. Blogging when I’m not journaling feels precarious and ungrounded, like growing a tree without roots.
This is my Day Twenty-Two contribution to NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month, a commitment to post every day during the month of November: thirty days, thirty posts.
Nov 22, 2014 at 6:57 pm
I love your mug! 🙂
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Nov 22, 2014 at 7:54 pm
I got that mug years ago from a restaurant in Manchester, VT that I don’t think is there anymore. It’s somehow survived years of use, multiple moves, and other hazards. 🙂
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Nov 22, 2014 at 7:33 pm
Your handwriting is beautiful…. It’s an inspiration for me to go back to my fountain pens! 🙂
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Nov 22, 2014 at 7:58 pm
I love writing with a fountain pen, even though I invariably end up with an inkspot on my left ring finger. I consider it a mark of pride: proof that I wrote on a given day.
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Nov 22, 2014 at 8:31 pm
these shorter more frequent blogs seem to convey something your more measured ones don’t ?
perhaps more your ADD? self ?
the journaling provides the mindset and material for the blogs as a literary form, most writing only costs the writer financially anyway, my view is well
written blogs are now the predominate literary form, just or more valid than traditional works of fiction like novels, its all r e a l l y c h a n g e d . .
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Nov 23, 2014 at 5:15 pm
Pen addict here! What pen and ink are you using here? Lovely color!
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