If All Else Fails, Write About Your Friend's Panty Hose

My Grandmother kept a diary from the time she was 20 years old.  She passed away at 87.  So for 67 years she recorded something every single day.  That's, more or less, 24,455 diary entries.  Even during periods of time in the hospital, in her later years, the family would ensure something was written on her behalf.

One of her diaries recently fell into my hands.  I've mentioned previously that I had felt a connection to her through her handwritten cookbooks.  With her diary, this connection feels much greater because I am actually mentioned in many of these entries....my name on paper, in her hand writing.  This particular diary covers 1988-1990...so I was around 9-10 years old and it was really heartwarming to read through it.

I also found myself relating it to our own journaling requirement.

We all struggle at times with our blogs.  We can sometimes feel as though what we've done that day is relatively insignificant and not really worth noting.  That it won't be interesting to anyone else or that it's just not that important.

When these thoughts come to my mind, I will now and forever think of my Grandma's diaries.

Many of her entries included the weather that day.  Some were only a sentence or two, just briefly mentioning that she had gone for a walk, or chatted with someone on the phone.  For some reason these small moments were the ones that stood out to her, and were the ones worth noting.  Maybe not significant to anyone else...but significant to her.  And although each one, on it's own, might seem trivial....added together, they are someone's life...someone's journey.

Her diaries have served as a reminder that there is always something to make note of and to write down.  The significance of the small details may not be apparent right away, but perhaps over the course of a few days, weeks, months...added together, these things might spark some insight.  But if I'm not bothering to write them down, if I'm shrugging them off as irrelevant, they will be lost for sure.  

And even if I never do piece anything together with certain details, it doesn't mean they aren't important.  It just might take 30 years for them to become important to someone else.

*I had to share the following entry because it just made me laugh.

"November 12, 1988 - Charlotte and I picked up Louise and went shopping.  I bought two pairs of slacks, Charlotte bought a blouse and Louise bought two pairs of panty hose."

See?...there is ALWAYS something to write about.  😂