A Treasure Map to the Pearl of Great Value

Per my last post, I feel that each of us possesses a Pearl of Great Value within ourselves, which is our story. Our personal narratives are nothing less than the description of our souls’ journeys through these sacred lives. Our eternity exists in our sojourning spirits. Our stories and our souls are inseparable, and precious. For this reason, it is essential that we take time with our stories and acknowledge every of step them, especially the stutter steps, trips, and fearless leaps.

I spend time with my personal story in a variety of ways. The best vehicle I’ve found is simply to journal. My father bought me a small black journal for my 16th birthday with some calligraphy pens. The pens I never mastered, but journalling quickly became my most beloved tool for self-exploration. Perhaps not surprisingly, my broken relationship with my father was a frequent theme in my early journal practice. Paradoxically, the man who caused me injury was the one who introduced the tools to heal the injury. Fate works this way.

A journalling practice can be as simple as writing down the events in one’s life. A diary of days can be a simple task. Documenting the mundane and notable occurrences is a meaningful way to claim one’s time on earth. Historians and ancestry lovers treasure diaries because they are pieces of personal journalism. Diarists are an important literary genre, as well. One’s chronicle says, “I was here, and this is what happened.”

Journalling can be a safe activity for processing feelings, which is how I utilize the practice. An astonishing thing happens when I write in my journal- I feel better every time. Journalling for over three decades has brought comfort, perspective, and deep healing to my heart and mind. There is nothing too awful or painful or raw for me to write down, and in the process of scribing, all those feelings diminish as understanding emerges.

I keep a secondary journal for dreams. I am not a good sleeper, and the only benefit to this seems to be that I recall dreams vividly. These dreams are a symbolic language for revealing parts of myself that are too deeply hidden to be experienced any other way. I enjoy rereading dream journals months and years later because their strange language communicates feelings, relationships, and events that are portent.

A hand-written journalling practice creates a treasure map to the Pearl of Great Value, our personal stories. Discovering the many-layered, luminous gems of our soul’s narratives is made possible by this exercise. Putting words to our days gives our time meaning, purpose, and intent.