As I write this, I have just logged day 84 of my daily journal since “stay at home” life began. I can’t believe we are almost at 90 days and as we slowly start to re-immerse ourselves into the outside world, we know there is still so much new territory to navigate. Having a daily and weekly place to let our thoughts reside can be a saving grace, especially during those harder days or weeks.

This year, I shared the weekly prayer journal with all of you that I started at the beginning of the year. I love this journal because it allows me the freedom to spend my time journaling throughout the week as my schedule provides the most time. What I love about this journal is it provides a weekly verse and supporting verse and message that is supposed to allow you to really dive into the meaning over a week’s period. Plus, you can share different ways the message or verse impacted your week and other notes of areas you need some additional prayer in.

The biggest surprise I have seen with this journal is how each verse has almost perfectly translated in some form or another to either what is happening that week in my life or in the world. In fact, it has really taken me aback in a few cases where I have opened it on a Monday night and been so overwhelmed of how relevant it is.

Since the start of quarantine life, I also started a daily journal. I originally started this one to keep track of the days and weeks that we were stuck at home and then it evolved into tracking little things that happened each day, and even noting some of the better days and some of the harder days. This daily journal doesn’t require a huge time commitment which is why it has been easier to keep up with and can be done in any blank notebook you have lying around.

Short term, it helps to see how we are progressing especially when the days all start to feel the same. Long term I think it will be really valuable to look back and view this time in our history and how it impacted the world as well as our lives specifically. Most importantly, I think getting your thoughts out each day on paper in some way or another is incredibly therapeutic.

The combination of both of these journals has truly been a much needed outlet for me during these last few months. I hope to continue them for the foreseeable future and maybe at some point, they will evolve into new journals or into other forms, but for now, I will treasure them during this pivotal time. I hope all of you are finding ways to express your emotions, thoughts and feelings during this time. Hopefully we will look back at some point and remember how strong and resilient each of these small acts made us.