Write It Down!

I walked by the parlor where the boys played cards yesterday. I heard Grant say, "Someday you'll be a winner Rowan." Without any conscious thought I grabbed a pen in the kitchen and wrote down his 7 year-old words and continued on my way. It's a habit. A wagon track trail through the prairie of my mind, I write everything down. It's a passion, a way of life, hand to hand combat with mortality, survival.

The second most uttered comment about motherhood, right behind "it goes so fast," is "write it down or you'll forget." And it's true. Brains strung out on Starbucks and chocolate and home school curriculum forget easily. Even, I might add, brains on organic and gluten free diets forget easily (this from experience).

And this journaling our journey works. Last summer Avonlea and I went through a very hard stage in our relationship. Our personalities diverged in major points and the stress of it was painful. One starry August night Dave and I sat out on the patio and talked about it. As I was pouring out my heart I looked over at him and realized he was sleeping! Well I had to talk to someone and my words aimed themselves at God. There in the star swept stillness He answered me. I went into the house and wrote it down. Three pages worth. I keep it near me always. When Avonlea and I waltz toward destructive patterns I read it, and I remember.

God wrote His Word out for us. In the person of Jesus and with the ink of man. The written word is precious.

I keep journals and scratch paper handy. I have a journal for each child that I started when I was pregnant with them. I have spirals full of funny saying out of the mouths of babes. I have a continuous list of blessings on my desk. A quotation journal lingers by my books. I even used to have a dream journal, but it got scary. Little pieces of paper are sometimes all I can get my hands on and they find their way to the most random places just when I need a good laugh.

So I, along with the masses that have gone before me, encourage you to write it down, just a sentence, a thought, an idea. A chicken-scratch to remember today.