Guest Blog Post By Ahava Shira
I have been writing in journals since the summer of 1987. That’s 24 years, over half my life. Still, some days it feels as if I’ve only just begun. Well, that’s how it feels when I open a new journal, or when I open to a new page. Endless possibilities. That’s one of the things I love most about journal writing. Here are 5 more:
1. I love the act of transcription, taking the thoughts, feelings, sensations, events and discoveries I experience moment to moment in my life and putting them down on the page.
2. I love how this habit of talking to myself silently through ink or keyboard keeps me in tune with my inner and outer circumstances.
3. I love feeling the quick touch of these keys against the tips of my fingers, or the pen twisting and rubbing the smoothness of the page. The sensuality is nourishing, as is the emotional release, whether I’m writing of sadness or fear, anxiety or joy.
4. I love opening to different parts of me, like the wise woman who consoles me, shares her opinion when mine is confused or uncertain. I call her Miss Understanding. And there are many others who have shown up to love and support me.
5. I love catching truths as they spring from my heart, caressing the contours of my bodymindsoul, helping me to show up, be here, get clear and remember what (and who) is dear to me.
I am a poet. That’s what I discovered soon after starting to write in the journal. It wasn’t enough to write standard sentences. I wanted to play with language, to let the words dazzle and sparkle before me like proud ballerinas. I wanted oomph and hurrah. Poems came as I wrote more and more.
Words
rearranged themselves
on the page,
like colouring out of the
lines, they spread
out this way and that,
assembled and re-
aasembled in varied
di- rect- ions
a few words
here, some more over there,
another one left
hanging.
.
That’s what happened. I had no idea where I was heading. I just allowed myself to write whatever came. That’s the gift of the journal. It has no rules. You know what else a journal doesn’t have?
1. NO dress code.
2. NO page numbers.
3. NO danger of crashing, nor need of a backup (plan).
4. NO plugs, cords, USB ports.
5. NO instant messages, except those coming from inside you.
6. NO hang-ups, NOR fear of commitment.
7. NO lack-of-style police.
8. NO limits on how many times you can change your mind about what to say, or wear when you are writing.
9. NO commercials.
10. NO body telling you the right way to write.
My journal is all about YES, exploring what else is here, whether it’s a new idea, list, story or poem. Words emerge and I’m off like a pizza boy with a guaranteed hot delivery in his (or her) smart car.
My journal is a place where I can say whatever I want to say, in as many diverse and interesting, unusual and alternative ways as I can say it. Where else do we have such permission? That’s how I have learned to be an artist, and a loving human being. By using the journal as a space to practice, I develop the self-awareness to choose how I want to treat myself and others.
With all the time I’ve spent starting again and again on the blank page, I have also become comfortable being in the unknown and letting the words creatively emerge. That also helps me stay open to other people who are different than me. Instead of thinking I know who they are, I have learned to see them as “a page in my journal”, to listen closely to who they are as they share themselves with me, and forgo the stereotypes and prejudices I had.
I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without the journals. I don’t want to. I am grateful for the space they have offered me to self-enfold and self-unfold.
What kind of place has the journal been for you? Send me an email at info@ahavashira.com.
Ahava Shira, PhD is a poet, writer, spoken word performer, improvisational storyteller & photographer. Author of Weaving of My Being (1998) and Love is Like This (2010), Ahava is founder and creative mentor at the Centre for Loving Inquiry, whose mission is to inspire, encourage and support women and men to live from their passion and engage with compassion toward themselves and others. She offers one-to-one & group mentoring in the creative & artrepreneurial journey through her website at http://www.ahavashira.com
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