Journaling vs. Diary: Does it matter if you never reread what you write?

By Julie A. Ferraro | FāVS News Columnist

To be honest, I don’t understand journaling.

The Cambridge online dictionary defines journaling as “the act of writing what you have done each day, sometimes including your private thoughts, feelings, and goals.”

How is that different from keeping a diary?

In fact, other online dictionaries equate journaling and keeping a diary as the same thing.

Perhaps the word “journal” itself sounds more dignified than “diary.” I remember way too many classic movies where a young girl’s fantasy-inspired (or reality-inspired) entries in her diary get her into a world of comedic trouble.

A journal is meant as a means to record more serious matters.

There’s also the consideration of how, in British English, “diary” means calendar, as when jotting upcoming appointments, making it something entirely different across the Atlantic.

A friend of mine writes in her journal, faithfully, every day. As a Catholic vowed religious, she receives beautifully bound blank journals as birthday and Christmas presents — one practical gift that a woman living in the spirit of poverty can truly use.

She fills these books, then stores them away and, after a few years, burns them.

In conversation about this practice once, she told me she doesn’t even go back and reread them before they are destroyed.

My thought: doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the exercise?

But, then, everyone views this process differently.

For instance, Thomas Merton, the renowned Trappist monk, kept journals throughout most of his life. After his untimely death in the 1960s, those journals went to an archive bearing his name in Kentucky. Gradually, they’ve been published, according to the stipulations he outlined. Thousands have benefitted from his experiences and insights jotted on those pages.

My youngest son, when he was a fourth grader in public school, had a teacher who was a former Marine. This man had the class keep a journal — just one of their spiral notebooks. While I was observing the class one afternoon, the teacher got into a heated argument with my son during “journaling time,” claiming over and over that my son wasn’t writing in his journal. He kept yelling, “Take out your journal!”

To say the least, I got upset at this attitude and, when I walked up to my son’s desk, I saw a notebook clearly marked “Journal” in front of him. I asked the teacher why he was insisting my son didn’t have his journal. He told me, “Because he’s written other things in that notebook, so he needs a different journal.”

Who’s to determine what a person writes in their journal?

Finding what works for you

The few times over the decades I’ve tried to keep a journal, I’ve done it on the computer. Because my handwriting is so lousy, I can’t read it 10 minutes after I’ve scribbled a few lines. What has worked out better for me is keeping a separate digital file for my poetry, another for quotations I find inspiring, and so forth.

There are classes and retreats focused on journaling — how to do it, what to write. I even gave one at a local library branch 20 years ago while living in Indiana. The librarians asked me to do it because my work as a journalist and author of fiction made me a viable candidate. I, at least, knew how to write.

Those in attendance at that evening session probably didn’t learn much from me about journaling. I advised them to open their eyes and their ears, and record what they see and hear, as well as what they feel about what they see and hear.

From a faith perspective, journaling can add another dimension: opening the heart. A journal can — and should — be a reference point on one’s spiritual journey, reminding us of trials we have endured with prayer, wisdom we have gained through reading Scriptures or other books, and the list goes on.

No one should feel guilty, though, if they choose not to journal. Another concept that must be remembered as we open our eyes, ears and hearts: We are all unique, and we walk the road of our individual lives in our own singular way.

The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.

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