KEEP A JOURNAL

Several years when I first began to sort out issues about my past I was encouraged to keep a journal. It didn't sound like an important thing yet I did it and I was pleasantly surprised. As I wrote I discovered that what my mind was thinking about was so far removed what I thought I was feeling that it seemed strange. But as I wrote more and more I gained a better understanding of who I really was. Not just a person on a family tree. Not just a wife, mother, teacher, or taxi cab driver for all the boys. I was important and had personal needs that were often not being addressed or were being swept under the carpet. I had lost part of my identity. Writing has given me an outlet to understand what I am feeling and has given me a chance to really know the real me.