Here is my journal for this week on… *drumroll* …journaling. As self evident as it seems, I have never journaled about journaling before. This may actually be my favorite journal assignment yet! I hope you feel inspired! ❤
What is journaling? It is channeling my thoughts and feelings into words, tiny black marks that miraculously represent the inner workings of my brain. It is like dumping a junk drawer out on your bed so that you can figure out what is in it, how to organize it, and what to do with it. Sometimes my thoughts feel like a tangled up pile of embroidery floss. Journaling is a way to untangle the jumbled knots churning around inside my head.
My favorite way to journal is with a pen or pencil on lined paper. Computers have too many distracting features, and staring at a screen just does not register with my brain the same way. I find it easier to get my thoughts into words through my hand rather than a keyboard. My preference is a ballpoint pen because it writes smoothly, does not require sharpening, and does not smear when you rub your hand over it (or splash tears on it) like fountain pen ink. And I need lines on my paper because otherwise I end up scribbling all over the place and frustrating myself because my lines are defying their name.
I have several notebooks I use to journal in, and each has its own purpose. For years now, I have kept a notebook for my personal devotions, in which I write the date, the reference of the Scripture I read, prayers, psalms, reflections, or whatever else comes to mind (there is even a spiritual in there somewhere).
Then there is a pink notebook with verses from the Psalms in it that I use to write about spiritual ‘milestones’, when I had a significant mental click, a submission of my will to His, a struggle that Jesus helped me with, or a Scripture that stuck out to me. I view it as the bag of memorial stones Much Afraid gathers throughout Hinds Feet on High Places to remember encounters with and promises of the Shepherd, a sort of travel log of my journey in Christ. 
The third notebook I keep is catch all. In it, I write rants, struggles, feelings, book ideas, dialogues, small business plans, and other random ruminations.
And finally, for the big question: Will I maintain my writing blog when class is over? Honestly, I cannot say. In theory, I would love to keep it up, and if I were still going to be in high school next year, I might be able to faithfully continue it. But as it is, I may end up giving more time to other things in life and less to my blog, though hopefully I will not abandon it all together. However, just because my blog world may diminish, Halaran, the realm of my imagination, will never shrink. If you use it, creativity will always grow and manifest itself, no matter what sphere it channeled into.
Highlands of Halaran 