To Journal or to Blog? That is the question.

I know, I know. I've been way too lax about writing in here. I have no excuse, other than the one I gave when someone told me to do a blog: I keep a journal. I have kept one for 42 years and I guess I'm just more used to picking up the journal when I have something on my mind than going on the computer.

But why can't I do both? Why don't I just write what I put in my journal in my blog?  Partly because I write things in the journal I wouldn't want others to read. Innermost thoughts (and not all hearts and flowers thoughts, either), petty gripes or things that happened that just don't seem to warrant blogging about. Mundane, ordinary stuff from a mundane, ordinary person. And partly because I don't feel like rewriting the same old stuff I put in my journal, into a blog. It's boring enough without doing it twice!

This blog, it seems, consists of more spur of the moment type stuff. Ephemeral things spawned by a stray thought or sight that sets my mind wandering and, unless I'm at home, that musing has often left my mind (like many things do nowadays) by the time I get to the computer.

So, excuses or reasons, that's why I have so few blog posts.  I'll leave you with a few bits of ephemera and the half-hearted promise to try to retain more thoughts to put in here.

1. I love the Fall season. Love the crisp feel of it, and the clothes and shoes I get to wear, and the colors. I don't, however, love the season that follows it, which shall not be mentioned.

2. I still believe that if a tree falls and nothing can hear it, it doesn't make a sound. Sound is just a wave until it hits something that can turn the wave into a sound. If nothing ever does that, the wave will eventually dissipate without being heard/making a sound.

3. When someone asks me where I'd like to live, if I had the choice, I never can name a place with certainty. I don't think I've been enough places to know for sure what the best one for me would be.  Or I just don't want to make a decision. Probably the latter.

The Happiness Jar

At the beginning of the year, I saw online an idea for a jar in which you put notes about the things that made you smile and at the end of the year or when you need a pick up, take out the notes and read them. I decided everyone can use some remembered joy, so I found a jar and prepared to write the things that brought me happiness and made me laugh or smile.
 
After one month, I have four little slips of paper in there. Four. And one of them I cheated and put down something that happened at Christmas. What does this say about me? Do I find so little joy in things? Am I that morose? Or am I just picky?

I choose to think I'm picky. I could put things like getting a good test result from my doctor in there - the news did make me smile - or how the sun looks shining on the new snow (okay, that didn't really make me smile, but it is kind of pretty), but everyday things like that just don't seem to warrant writing down and putting away for a later pick-me-up. I guess I'd rather make note of the really good things. The one time only, serendipitous kind of happenings. The things I know will bring back good times and good feelings and that will make me laugh or smile at a low time or the end of the year.

So maybe three or four things in a month isn't so few. Maybe it's just right - for me.