Write it All Down

Journaling Invitations for Coming More Fully Alive

When I do not know what else to do with the thoughts in my head, I pick up my pen and paper. All of those big ideas flood the page with admittedly terrible handwriting.

Photo by Jessica Mangano on Unsplash

I do not write pretty in these moments. This is not a time for practicing my penmanship but trying to understand the workings of my heart. These are times when I have big questions and want answers to what feels impossible and overwhelming.

This is part of being human, though. It is part of being alive that we don’t really understand what is happening. We want so badly to understand but we don’t have clarity. We only have threads knotted up inside us that need release from our shoulder and neck muscles. They need to pulse down our arms and outside our bodies onto the page.

It was Joan Didion that said, “I write entirely to find out what is on my mind, what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I’m seeing, and what it means.”

In these summer months, where you might find yourself wondering what it means to come fully alive, I invite you to pick up your pen and write it all down. Write what you see and what you think. Write and write until you know what it all means.