For many years, I used to write weekly in my garden journal where I would sit outside in my garden, usually in the same place week after week, and describe the day, the weather, and the sounds all around. That ended some years ago when many other writing projects began to take precedence, but I do miss writing those observations and the feelings and thoughts of the day, as my words on paper, elicited and stemming from just the observations of the day and everything around me, many times began to touch the deeper issues that my mind and heart had been working on and considering, mulling over and processing, and I would always be surprised and usually deeply satisfied with the product that would appear on paper. Many times, I would not even be aware of what was truly evolving within, and I would actually be mildly impressed by what had been, “cooking on the back burner”, as I called it, even though when it was finally made manifest upon the page, I did indeed recognize the issue, its significance in my life, and how it was usually a concern or puzzlement that had embedded and taken root within my heart and mind, which now with pen upon the pages of my journal, blossomed into words, thought, and meaning.
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Thoughts & Musings On Writing – Writing In The Shade Of Trees
I think some people would call that a form of therapy.
Perhaps some people will call it therapy. However, I think it is much more than that, something more deep and private and more lasting in its imprint upon the soul. For what I described as the emerging depth when I would write in my garden journal, was born within the quiet and blessed solitude of those moments alone and being entirely open to the surfacing of those thoughts and meditations that emerge, and that can only emerge, when the mind and soul are at peace as one. I think this thought is encompassed in my posting where I described those for whom I write, as those who find an unexpected quiet chapel in the middle of a busy city much like New York, where they are welcome to enter and just quietly sit without any burdens, expectations, or time limits, placed upon them. In this sense, it is not therapy, but a place, a provision, and an invitation, to touch deeply within, opening towards self-discovery and a deepening awareness and knowledge of God, bringing both into a closer and truer relationship with each other.