Oh, the smell of fresh paper. The feel of the rough page beneath my hand. The sense of possibilities expanding before me, as I gathered together my thoughts, put pen to paper, and wrote.
Gone are those good old days of keeping a hand-written journal. Of carrying around a diary everywhere I went, so I was never stumped if inspiration struck, or if I saw a particularly good quote that I wanted to note down forever, or just wanted to ruminate.
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All of that has been replaced with my iPhone. True, it’s much smaller and lighter than my diary. It’s with me everywhere I go. The chances of my forgetting it anywhere are slim. But it’s just not the same as my dear diary.
There are no pages to rifle through. No coffee spills to highlight passages of my life. No drunken scrawls that I cannot decipher the morning after. It’s too neat. Too structured. Too…cold.
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What do you think? Do you miss your hand-written diary? Or are you happy recording your thoughts digitally?
I think it is fantastic to have a hand written diary. That way, if ever there is an ‘energy crisis’ in the world, you still have your written words 🙂
OMG! Can you begin to imagine the kind of chaos it would be if there were an energy crisis? I might just have to blog about this! Thanks for the inspiration! 🙂
I love my journal…and it is fantastic to look back and reflect on past issues that at the time seemed so difficult, and now not so much.
Yes…that is true. Our past dramas appear to be minor hiccups now…
I love hand-written journals. I still have my journal from the first year after I moved to Canada and I love to read it. I started another journal after my kids were born and I do not write in it as much, but I try to write all the important things and memories.
Your kids are going to cherish the ones you’re writing for them!
I still have a handwritten journal. I do not use it as often as I used to, but do treasure it and post to it from time to time. I especially adore reading over old posts – it is always amazing to see the issues so heavy on my heart at the time from my new perspective.
Ah yes! Looking back at old journals gives you a strong sense of how you’ve grown as a person, and a unique perspective on the problems life throws our way – ultimately, nothing is as earth shattering as it seems, we learn, move & grow from all of life’s knocks.
I still have a handwritten journal – and it’s true, the (in my case *tea*) stains, little added in clippings, notes do make it all the more meaningful and “real”. However, with carparal tunnel I tend to have numb hands – and writing on computer is so much easier! So I print out my computer journal pages, binder them up, and add in other scribblings and such. Not quite the same – but nice 🙂
As long as you have them to flip through any ol’ time! There’s a limit to how much you can read online…
I keep a handwritten diary…. to be fair, I don’t write in it daily, but I still like the tactile aspect of taking pen to paper….
Yup, nothing quite beats that feeling, or the sound of a pen scratching on paper.
I keep a handwritten journal. I write in it most days. It helps me organize my days and they go much better when I do write. I have found the answer to many a problem in those pages.
And since I stopped writing everyday, I seem to be a bit blocked & a little less introspective – not good!
I’ve just switched to a digital scrapbook from a traditional one, and I hope I don’t regret it later in life!
I sure hope you don’t! – you could always print them out! And backup – for sure!
I know exactly how you feel! I just recently started writing in a journal again. I feel that doing that will help me become a better writer & have even posted some of my entries on my blog. However, my Droid has taken on a much larger role in terms of keeping track of quotes, important info & starter writing topics if I’m not near my journal.
Yes, it’s so much easier to whip out my iPhone and jot down bits & bobs throughout the day. But if real inspiration strikes – instead of the one or two lines I usually get and then nada, which I suspect is because I’m typing not writing – it’s hard to type on it for prolonged periods of time.
I still keep a handwritten diary. I’ve tried doing it via Live Journal and it just wasn’t the same. I need my own handwriting and a physical journal. It just feels…better.
I tried online diaries quite often, then found blogging, which I love. But not everything can be shared, and those are the stories annd issues that sometimes need a diary.
I’m not sure why, but my pen has issues meeting the paper and yet my fingers glide across the keyboard, so I usually do it all digitally now. There are plenty of times when I really wish writing it out was easier for me!
As long as you’re happy with a method that works well for you! 🙂
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