… I am the necessary angel of earth,
Since in my sight, you see the earth again.*
(Wallace Stevens)

My own journaling is how I’ve come to form my sense of identity and path in life.**
(Ben Hardy)

How do we make sense of what appears to be such a messy life?

So many things that are part of who we are, but how to make sense of them all?

The world is messy and at its messiest seems most healthy.  Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us if our lives, the product of this ecosystem, are both messy and healthy when we respect this.

Journaling is one way that helps us reframe, to capture the ever so many things into a story that both engages us and unfolds into the future in an endless way.  To see what we’re aware of but differently, to bring out what has been invisible or far away in the background.

It’s not guaranteed but it is a place to begin that has surprising developments.

Ben Hardy suggests not overdoing it.  Keep it fresh by journaling for short periods.  All it means is, we open the journal, we begin writing, and go with the flow.

(*From Wallace Stevens The Auroras of Autumn, quoted in The Necessary Angel.)
(**From Ben Hardy’s blog: Keeping a Daily Journal Could Change Your Life.)