Five Minute Friday : Write



It's Five Minute Friday. Where everyone writes for five, unedited minutes all on the same prompt. This week, that prompt is the challenge itself, the dare if you will.  Lisa Jo has been encouraging honest writing and yeah baby...that is scary stuff. 

This week’s prompt is “WRITE.”



Here Goes.





I’ve been writing since I was a little girl. I had a diary, as most young girls do, and faithfully wrote in it whenever I felt I had something I wanted to share with myself. I used it as a sounding board. Sometimes I would go back to change my thoughts to what seemed more appropriate even though the first draft was the most honest.

As I grew up I graduated from a diary to a journal.  A journal sounded more mature than a diary, yet it functioned the same way. The writing it contained certainly had more mature themes though. I started the journal in my early twenties. The first few pages began with the dating of my husband then moved on to having our children and just doing life. I put the journal aside for many years but recently discovered it again in a box after a move. When I found it and began to flip through the pages, I discovered  that life seemed to have gotten in the way of writing.  When my pages begin to fill with the painful words of a rough marriage, my pen stopped capturing the moments. Later entries were dated sometimes more than a decade apart and I noticed I tried to fill in the gaps of what happened during those exiles, only to be halted once again. Were the memories too painful or was I afraid I would lose the reality of what really happened? I'm not sure.

I  remember I tried to write what was happening in my life, but every time I felt held back, feeling as if the gap in between would forever be forgotten if I didn’t put them on paper before moving on. I put restraints on writing my current life in order to try and capture the pain I went through in my early years.  I guess I wanted to see the progression to a happy ending.  Instead, I’ve lost those little details that happened. Now the past details are foggy and my journal pages incomplete.

So where do I go from here? Do I try to recall the past or should I just write? Can I do both?

Stop.

I'm joining Lisa Jo Baker and tons of other brave writers for Five Minute Friday. 


Five Minute Friday

Comments

  1. Oh that is a hard one! I recall being unable to fill in the gaps on paper... some how our memories just can't seem to do it justice...
    My vote: just start writing again about today :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your vote, it seems to be the consensus. And because they are painful memories, I wonder if they should be captured at all.

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  2. I agree with heather. Just start now. It's too hard to catch up, and it will probably be stressful, which nobody needs extra stress

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    Replies
    1. Sarah, you are right, and I've already missed out on so many years, I don't want to miss out on more!

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  3. I do the same thing. I currently journal once a week (or two)... but I put off journaling kore regularly because it would take so much time to catch up!

    I need to just write, lest I forget the blessings of today as I write the leftovers of yesterday.

    Great post!

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    Replies
    1. Kayla, let's do it! We can always write about a snapshot of our life that we passed over at a later time. Let's capture today!

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  4. Today, write for today. If a tomorrow comes where you feel the acceptance or want to write the gaps, you can do so. But for today, write today. If not you will have so many MORE gaps!

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    Replies
    1. Jenny, wise words. Thank you for that perspective!

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