Write It OUT

I have had a very private, "locked" online journal for more than 10 years. That is where I write it all. It's where I still go to have those teenage temper tantrums in writing. It feels so good to do that, even as I get close to my 30's. It's where I went when I was 18 years old, pregnant and freakingthefuckout. It's where I went when I thought my parents were better off on a different planet. ;) I love that I will always have that journal to go back to read about my high school graduation, all three of my pregnancies, birth stories, marriage and divorce, my kids growing up, marriage to the love of my life, college and so much more. It is my real therapist. I can mention names of anyone I want to without worry that anyone will "find out" and no one asks for an explanation. 

Just like this blog has readers and followers, my locked journal has friends added by me. It is very rare for me to let anyone into my journal, but I have actually met some really great people. My husband calls them my e-friends-LOL!!! I feel like they know me better than anyone else could know me because I put it all out there and do not ever hold back. They support me. I have "watched" their kids grow up and they have watched mine. They are from all parts of the US, Australia, England and Canada. I feel very blessed to have met the people I have from writing in my journal. The first flight I ever took was to meet a girl from Michigan that I met through my journal. Some would call it risky. I had a blast, got a tattoo and fell in love with her family.

I truly believe that writing is therapeutic, reading what you've been through and how far you've come is even better for your soul. You know when you're going through a certain situation and you think that there is no way, no how you'll make it?! I love to look back at those journal entries and laugh and say "Wow, if I made it through that dark time...there is no way I can't make it through this."

I haven't been as faithful to my journal as it has to been to me over the last little while, but it's there if I need it. I encourage everyone to write. Writing is free and will get whatever it is off of your chest in a New York minute. My kids all have a thankful journal. I doubt that they write in it everyday, but I know that they write in it because they share them with me periodically.

-From Ashton's Thankful Journal-