Thousands of words, hundreds of pages, years of journaling…up in flames… Intentionally.
A few months ago, a friend and I were talking about what to do with our old, personal journals. I’ve had mine sitting around for a while thinking I’d reread them, but I’ve only glanced at them and reread a few entries. The most interesting was writing out 40 days of prayers during Lent one year.
The content of our journals were our feelings at the time…my journaling was more therapeutic than anything else and so I decided I didn’t feel the need to keep them anymore. The same held true for my friend, so we decided to burn them, together. We would create some sort of ceremony making it an event of some significance.
And so we did.
She came over and we built a fire in the fire pit in our backyard. We said a prayer, and sat around talking about all the memories we accumulated over the years, while throwing our papers into the fire.
One memory that surfaced while we were talking, was from years ago when all our kids were school age (our two families got together often and had many bon fires over the years). We would get together at the end of the school year, build a bon fire, and the kids would throw in their collected school papers from the past year into the fire.
That is what my friend and I did…We threw out all the written pages of our learning over many years, hopefully maintaining wisdom from all the experiences we had.
Amen.
Hmmm…I don’t know if I could do this, not that I have journaled much. But it seems the right thing for both you and your friend to do and what a memorable way to accomplish this.
It feels right. and it was fun to do this together with a friend to make it more than just throwing the journals away. 😉
How interesting….it’s like letting go of what has passed and looking forward.
I like that…letting go and moving forward…Thanks Vic!
Maybe a bit like incense… a sweet offering of the years rising up to the heavens
Yes, I agree. It was a bit like that!
Good for you! I have trouble of ridding myself from things of the past but because I currently live in a small apartment, I have had to get rid of many of those things. It does make a person appreciate the past but let go and think of current and future life.
I do appreciate my past and the fact that I was able to process it by writing.
I like being in the present, and I continue to journal some.
Next thoughts…what do I do with my computer generated journals? :-0
What a special event to share with a friend!
It did turn out to be a very special event. I’m glad about that.
Wow, both impressive … and terrifying. I am glad it was so cathartic for you and your friend. My sister has done this as a ritual in her life, periodically purging her journals. I have not been able to bring myself to do that. Maybe I will end up doing so, maybe I will not. But, for sure today is not that day!
I am so happy that it felt like a powerful ritual for you!
You will know when the time is right…
and it was right for me that night. 😉
Great job!!!!!
Thanks!