What is put in between cork, is what becomes. Maybe it's in the symbolism of wine, and in the metaphor of it as truth telling. Regardless, what I write in my notebooks with cork cover, becomes. I drew a little flag with my blue ballpoint when I first bought this one below. About six months later, I suddenly see how one of my photos of the sky and sea in blue, became exactly like that. We think something and then we create it, so what are you thinking?
Here in Portugal, actually already in 2015, I started writing diaries again in the same way I used to as a teenager and young adult. Within the scope of handwriting, I become closer to my own heart again, without necessarily thinking about it as a future blogpost, article or speech, although I sometimes scribble down notes about them too. In my diaries, in the language I use then, I can reclaim my own voice, reflecting it in a dialogue with the diary, often to release a burden, and sometimes finding an unexpected insight with what naturally develops that otherwise wouldn't. As if our train of thoughts can be led with our own pens. That is the actual gift of journaling and keeping a diary. Sometimes it's to create something, catching an idea and putting it on paper, to be able to keep the sentiment, to be able to express an emotion. And sometimes it's to keep a log of what has been going on.
I have written diaries since I first learned how to write. It's the most intimate of all our relationships.
Have you ever written without focus? Letting it flow without assignment and specified topics? In coaching, we use journaling as part of self-assessment and goal planning, learn to express gratitude or going into a topic of analysis. While this is good and useful, try also to set aside some time to just write it out what you're thinking and feeling.
It's your freedom!