I have kept a journal for decades. I cannot remember a time when I was not writing.
I have been sharing favorite quotes, songs and excerpts from my journals on this public blog since 2007. I am finally feeling ready to publish some of my poetry and personal mythology in print...and I came upon these insightful words:
"The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle. Although I have felt compelled to write things down since I was five years old, I doubt that my daughter ever will, for she is a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up. Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss."
- Joan Didion
snapshot: a corner of my home
