Looking Back

Day 4 of NaBloPoMo and I’m still in the game. I’m straying again from the daily prompt (this will happen, apologies in advance. I struggle with what I what I feel like I can share with the world). The prompt was Write a letter to yourself a year from now. What things are happening right now that you don’t want yourself to forget?

My idea is similar to the prompt but not quite. I’ve been kicking around the idea of creating a date-based journal, pretty much like a normal journal or diary, but set it up in which I can return to each particular day and see how things have changed.

An example:

Today is Sunday, November 4th, 2018. I spent the day cleaning and closing up the camper for the season. It was a nice, mild day for early November and I would have loved to have a campfire tonight, but there was too much to do. I cleaned and folded up my inflatable kayak, carried it up the steps into the trailer, lost my balance, had to jump back out or fall down the steps, and landed square on on my good hip in the gravel. Nice. It’s busy season at work, (4th quarter always is) and I’m juggling projects, but totally elated with the good news on Friday that our flexible work plan is coming in April 2019 (it can’t come soon enough!) My car needs a ton of work so I’m getting ready to shell out the cash to patch it together. And I really need to get rid of all this extra Halloween candy.

Just a synopsis. What’s going on, what am I thinking about, what’s good, what’s bad, what’s bothering me? It could be just a paragraph or a sentence, as long as it captures that moment, that day. Fast forward a year, what entry will I post on November 4th, 2019? How have things changed? If I’m disciplined enough to continue this, I’ll document the progression of my life. It will be interesting to look back on.

I guess the point me of me doing this is to create a real example that life is so very fluid. Everything is temporary. Everything changes. Good times, and bad times, they don’t stay. I don’t need a journal like this to remind me that my life is so much better than it was ten years ago. IMMENSELY better than it was 20 years ago. But I don’t remember all the details of those years. And if I did, I think I would finally learn to take life in stride.

The journey begins! Let’s see where this goes.