"Dear Journal,"

When I was little I had ambitions to be a many number of things.  A nurse, a missionary, a teacher, an actress, a singer (ha!), a dancer (double ha!), a wife, a mother, and finally, a writer.  I could take the time now to fill paragraphs and paragraphs about how I am now living my dreams, even if only in small or abstract ways, and fulfilling each of those childhood aspirations.  Maybe you'll see those posts someday.  But this particular post, my FIRST as a "blogger", is dedicated to that last love of mine.

Writing.

I can't say for sure when this love for writing originated, but I remember starting my very first journal (I thought it uncool to call it a diary) in the 5th grade.  It was small, pink, and it had a tiny lock and key.  And with that first journal, my world of writing was unlocked. 

I was painfully shy and quiet as a young girl, and writing not only gave me a way to record my life happenings, it also gave a voice to my feelings. (Which in 5th grade consisted of 3 sentences per entry on which boy I liked and whether or not he had paid attention to me that day.  Hey, I didn't say they were deep, thought-provoking feelings...)

I went on to keep a journal off and on throughout Jr. High, High school, and on into College.  In waves of sentimentality I've gone back and read through a few of them.  It's amazing the clarity and growing wisdom that comes with age.... Praise the Lord!.... and that's all I'm going to say about that! 

My final written journal was penned to my hubby. My prince charming.  My life's love.  My Shannon.  I started it after only 2 weeks of dating.  I knew after the very first date that he was unlike any man I had ever gone out with.  I didn't KNOW we would end up married, but I had a good idea. 

At that time I had gotten out of the habit of keeping a journal for myself.  (Why?  Confession: my journals were mostly filled with teenage boy troubles.  Embarrassing silly stuff to read.  Really.  Which is why no one else is permitted to read them.  REALLY!)  Anyway...  after finding Mr. Right, I really didn't have any heartache or angst to work out on paper by journaling...  But I did want to preserve those wonderful, euphoric feelings that come with new love, and keep a remembrance of the beginning of our love story together. So I didn't write to my journal, I wrote to my future hubby.  It's basically a year's worth of love letters.  I gave it to him on our wedding night.  (But no, he didn't read it that night... Though that would make a romantic moment in a movie... but we live in reality, and we had waited for that night... and I do mean waited... and ummmm....)  ....Ahem... Moving on.... 

Fast forward to today.  I am a happily married woman of 8 years, I have 3 beautiful children, and a blessed life by all accounts.  But I keep no journal.  Frankly, I can't remember the last time I even sat down to hand write anything longer than a shopping list, so keeping a traditional journal is out of the question.  And yet that underlying desire to get my thoughts and feeling out through the written word remains.  Facebook has served as my abbreviated writing outlet for a while now, but sometimes it's tough to condense a day's events into a status update.  So here I go.  Into the world of blogging...

What will my blog contain?  I guess it will be like my modern day journal.  Only instead of hiding it under my mattress, I'm sending out into cyberspace for all (or just my mom and maybe a few friends) to read.  It will be a way to record my daily (or weekly or monthly) moments, thoughts, feelings and events.  You are welcome to read it, or not.  Some of it will be geared for other's reading enjoyment, I'm sure, but with my poor memory and the enormous amount of brain cells I've lost since having kids, heaven knows I need a way to remember these years of my life!

So, it is mostly for me. 

This is my journal.

To capture the Misty Moments that make up my life.