blog to discovery

This is a question I’ve been asking myself recently. I’ve kept a diary on and off since I was eleven and feel that my life is more productive when I keep one. In recent years my writing has been more off than on, however, over the last few weeks I’ve had the urge to start writing again, but I don’t know why.

Of course, one of the main benefits of keeping a journal is the record of your life, which could become historically important (think The Diary of Samuel Pepys). However, there are also meant to be many other benefits of keeping a personal journal:

• helps goal setting and measuring progress
• simply your life
• strengthen your relationships
• empower you
• aids reflection
• reduces stress
• helps focus
• helps to practice writing skills
• creates personal space
• helps to develop self expression

I’ve had a lovely long weekend at my parents and had the opportunity to catch up with lots of family I haven’t seen in a long time, including sisters, nephews, cousins, aunts and uncles. A topic of frequent conversation was tracing the family tree because my sister and several other family members have been working on ours for many years.

It is amazing the information available to trace your family back generations, including their livelihood and the the exact house they lived in. Of course this information is available through official records, but the interesting part is often the personal story found through photographs and letters. So what is the equivalent today? For me it is emails, digital photographs and perhaps this blog.

Initially digital seems like a great step forward for the preservation of records, but how many emails from family and close friends are deleted as we are now overloaded with emails and photographs rarely get printed so remain on the computer which is so easy to clear by mistake.