May I read your journal?

Call me voyeuristic, but I love to read other people's journals. For me this week, it was so fun to nonstop read bits of 30+ journals, all illustrated and written in various styles. Jennifer New has put together a lovely compilation of part sketchbook/part diary from many walks of life, each example exquisite as it stands, however different from the ones that precede and follow it.

At Juvenile Hall this week I was asking the girls if they keep journals. Many said they used to but only a couple still do. We make art journals every week there, always adding pages that are somehow related to the day's topic. Since I hoped to add journaling as a tool they can use to reduce stress and encourage insight, I held up two of my own journals. One, I said, is all words. I have about 50 of those. The other one is a combination of words and drawings and I flipped through the pages to demonstrate.

The girls were attentive, a little surprised, perhaps, that an adult would trust them with something so personal, but they immediately became more talkative about their journaling experiences and got busy with the pages they wanted to add in the simple ones we work on each session.

This afternoon, I took a few minutes to sketch my sleeping dog, Beulie, in a journal of my own.