True stories well told can inspire, caution, entertain, and instruct. Brigham Young understood the power of a good story when he counseled Church historians to do more than simply record the dry facts of the past. “Write in a narrative style,” he advised them, and “write only about one tenth part as much.”
Saints:Volume 1, Introduction
You know, I think about my previous journals, and I may have just recorded dry facts, instead of making it interesting for the reader. Also, I believe that we should record our feelings of everything that happens to us. Feelings and emotions are what carry us through the day. We either have positive feelings or negative feelings. I learned at the first Energy Healing Conference that I went to with Sarah, that left by themselves, a human has 70% more negative thoughts than positive thoughts throughout the day.
I feel that one of the ways we can change this is through purposefully making things positive, looking for the good in all that happen, whether it be good or bad. Even if we have negative emotions in the day, writing them down and expressing them is always better than keeping them inside and letting them build until the inevitable happens: you explode.
I haven’t always been good about getting OUT my negative emotions. Nor have I been good about recording the things in a narrative style in my journal. Only recently, (well starting with my 1st letter to Jacob and going to my last letter which at this point is, I think, #111) I have recounted stories from the week that I have been able to make interesting and exciting to read. Actually, I’m reminded of one of my favorite books from my childhood: Dear Mr. Henshaw, which tells the story of a young boy, writing to his favorite Author, but leading to an accounting of his life in letter form as if his favorite Author was still reading his stories. As I remember, it doesn’t really have an ending, just that life goes on. We just gotta love it and love ourselves and the decisions we make.
The interesting thing about the quote above from Brigham Young is that besides recording things in a narrative style, is that 10% of everything that happens to us is just fine. I know he was just saying a number and that we can record 100% or 5% of the things that have happened to us, but really, what we do recount must matter to us, and, the reader. For me, I want my journal not to be just the “dry facts,” which for the most part, it has been. Writing to Jacob has been super good for my journal. I don’t record everything that has happened during the week, but something for which Jacob would appreciate, and that is interesting, funny, and exciting.
I want to start writing in my journal more often, more than the once a week, which has been the norm since I started writing my brother. But, besides an accounting of what happened, I want it to be much more. I want it to speak to my soul, and to the souls of all those who are going to read it in the future. I want it to be real. I want it to be relatable. I am just a normal human being. I have normal feelings like happiness, sadness, sometimes even anger. But honestly, that is okay.
I honestly don’t know who this is going to reach. And honestly, that does not have to be the most important thing. If anybody, I want it to reach those that are closest to me, and if it extends beyond that, the better. If I have touched more than one life for good, (my life included), the better.
