Monday, April 2, 2012

Keeping a diary

When I was a teenager, diaries were popular gifts. The ones I received were all the same with a few lines designated for each day of the year. Four or five lines about 1/8th of an inch apart. Similar to the pocket day planner I carry around in my purse today, except these diaries had tiny locks and tinier keys.

I knew the intent was to write the important things that happened each day, but how could I crowd my unruly handwriting into lines that were so close together or say anything of importance in only four lines? God forbid that I break the rules and use the space of two days to write what happened in one! And what if I wrote something personal and one of my sisters or my mother read it? Even then I had secrets too big to trust to paper. Or at least I thought I did.

Instead I wrote down mundane things like what the weather was like. Often the diary gathered the dust of disinterest after a week or two.

Little did I know that all these years later, I'd still be keeping a diary in the modern day form of a blog and I'd still be driven to write about the weather. Yet, it's true. The weather this spring inspires gratitude and poetry. The weather is so unbelievable I can't help but note it. Were I trying to shoehorn my words into the diary of my teen years, here's what it would say:

"April 1, 2012. 89 degrees. Sunshine. Crab apple and redbud trees in full bloom. Daffodils and hyacinths blooming BEFORE Easter. Mowed the grass. Second time this year!!!"

Not since 1910 have we had a March so warm. In fact, this year March temps blew the 1910 record out of the water. Weather like this deserves its place in my diary. And I'm glad to have a blog. My handwriting has become less tidy over the years.

6 comments:

  1. Definitely diary/blog worthy. Looking back, we won't believe it! It would be easy to think every winter and spring moving forward would be like this; but we're Iowans, we know better. I have enjoyed every minute of this record-setting one though. I turned off my furnace March 1st and haven't turned it on since. However, I have added a couple extra blankets some nights. I wonder whatever happened to the diary I kept in high school? Hmmm.

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  2. This will be the spring we remember just like the old timers remember the winters and like I remember the flood of 93. I've enjoyed every minute of this one, too, though I think my husband is getting a little tired of me saying, "Can you believe this weather?!?!" Wouldn't it be fun to see those old diaries?

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  3. The weather has been amazing here too. My husband talked about getting a snow plow for years. He finally got one in September. Maybe next winter...lol.
    Blogging has certainly taken the place of my journal which took the place of my diary [I needed more lines:)]

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  4. So, we can thank your husband for this fine weather! Thank him for me. Like you, blogging gives me the desired number of lines, but the experience - and out come - are different. When I want/need to puzzle something out, I still get the paper and pen.

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  5. :) I definitely keep a journal (not a blog, though). For me it also began when I was young. I don't think I'd be sane without journalling.

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  6. Isn't it amazing what clarity writing it down can bring! We're lucky to have started writing early.

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