Diaries and journals document our stories so that, hopefully, when we depart this earth and all our life's possessions end up in a box...our journals will still be in that box for the next generation.
I remember receiving a diary for Christmas when I was eleven or twelve years old. It had a little strap across the pages, and a lock and key so that my thoughts were kept private. Who knows where that little book is now? I probably lost the key and it got tossed in the trash at some point in time. I doubt seriously it would be very interesting to anyone but me. My life was pretty boring at twelve. I might have penned how much I loved Paul McCartney, or that I wished the boys in sixth grade were taller. At five feet four, I felt like the Jolly Green Giant on "dance day". Thankfully, I stopped growing, and the boys didn't.
I found one of my incomplete journals from about 1999. Here was my list of important lessons learned from life:
- Be a good listener; you'll learn more than if you always have to be the center of attention in every conversation.
- Be a faithful friend...someone they can trust with a secret.
- Cultivate compassion. Learn how to empathize with other's pain. They don't always need answers to the hurts and sorrows. Just knowing you care and hurt with them is usually enough.
- Think twice before you speak. Words once out of your mouth can't be taken back, though you may wish that they could.
- Tell others that you love them. We never get tired of hearing it!
Copyright 2015Charlotte Laney
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