Do you keep a diary?

Rose65 said:

Do you keep a diary?​

I mean a classic diary of your daily doings. I used to, as a young girl. It was a way of ordering my thoughts and making sense of my life.
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Good God, no. I wouldn't want anyone reading it. If I kept one, I'd have to worry about making sure I destroyed it before my demise, and I have enough to worry about. My thoughts are ordered, and my life makes sense without the need or desire to write it all down.
 

No and never have. But I started one here* mostly to share pictures from my garden and walks with my dogs. But after talking about its early evolution the sense of a record of the garden’s progress was pretty moot, and walks with dogs are only shared when the pics are decent even though we walk every day.

*. https://www.seniorforums.com/threads/gardening-for-nature-walks-with-my-dogs-and-the-books-i’m-reading.77218/
 
Alligatorob said:
No, don't find myself that interesting.
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what an odd thing to say...:unsure:

yes Rose, I keep a Diary.. have done since my daughter was a newborn 47 years ago.... It's been an absolute Boon for me at times when I've lost track of events that happened previously and was able to look them up in my diaries.. it's also a second memory for me too. Things I'd completely forgotten about, not to mention all the historic world events .. and also things of which I may have false memory of..... as well as being Cathartic...it's something I enjoy doing.. along with my Photographic Library..
diaries.jpg
This is just a fraction of the hundreds of Diaries I've amassed over the decades... almost all of them are in the loft now..but I have one at all times in my bag, which I write in every day
 
I have always kept one. I use notebooks and have always written my thoughts or what I have done that day. Yes, I actually go back over them from time to time to read. Like my photos, it reminds me of things I did with others who are not in my life anymore. When I have a problem to deal with writing it out and figuring out how to handle it in my journal has always helped me stay positive about whatever it was. Now I mostly write in a journal that is on my computer and sometimes I write every day and sometimes not for weeks.
 
Bella said:
Good God, no. I wouldn't want anyone reading it. If I kept one, I'd have to worry about making sure I destroyed it before my demise, and I have enough to worry about. My thoughts are ordered, and my life makes sense without the need or desire to write it all down.
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I kept journals for years (not as many as Holly!) but I threw them all out a few years ago while doing a "Swedish Death Cleaning," which is all about going through your house to get rid of things that might embarrass your kids. I skimmed through them first and they were mostly just boring.
 
Della said:
I kept journals for years (not as many as Holly!) but I threw them all out a few years ago while doing a "Swedish Death Cleaning," which is all about going through your house to get rid of things that might embarrass your kids. I skimmed through them first and they were mostly just boring.
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That's the thing, most of us don't have anything of any note to say. Perhaps only the diaries of great travellers, important or famous people are worthwhile.
I'm hard pushed just living each day without also writing about it! Most of what I do is extremely boring to anyone else I am sure.
 
Bella said:
Good God, no. I wouldn't want anyone reading it. If I kept one, I'd have to worry about making sure I destroyed it before my demise, and I have enough to worry about.
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Oh, @Bella , this would have been my answer word for word. All through my life I was a journal writer... but then 5 or 6 years ago or so it hit me that my daughter would be finding my journals someday and reading them most likely to feel closer to me. Never wrote another word in one and I can't really see a purpose any longer even if I'd want to do it. (EDIT: I should add that my journals were usually deep personal feelings and I never did the what I did today or what I made for dinner entries... that wouldn't matter if anyone saw it!)
 
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Della said:
I kept journals for years (not as many as Holly!) but I threw them all out a few years ago while doing a "Swedish Death Cleaning," which is all about going through your house to get rid of things that might embarrass your kids.
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I didn't know it had a name, @Della , but I did the same thing some time ago. I sat there reading things from over the years and I kept thinking "omg, omg, why the heck did I keep a record of that?!" Scared the devil out of me when I realized my daughter would be finding them at some point... never wrote in one after that. 😨
 
In a way, when you come to this forum and write about your day..or what's happening in your life...it's just like a Diary....
CallMeKate said:
Oh, @Bella , this would have been my answer word for word. All through my life I was a journal writer... but then 5 or 6 years ago or so it hit me that my daughter would be finding my journals someday and reading them most likely to feel closer to me. Never wrote another word in one and I can't really see a purpose any longer even if I'd want to do it.
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My daughter will never read my diaries... I know that for sure... she'll just put a match under them, which is sad because she'd learn a few things if she read even one or 2... but she doesn't have a sentimental bone in her body...
 
hollydolly said:
In a way, when you come to this forum and write about your day..or what's happening in your life...it's just like a Diary....

My daughter will never read my diaries... I know that for sure... she'll just put a match under them, which is sad because she'd learn a few things if she read even one or 2... but she doesn't have a sentimental bone in her body...
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Perhaps just as well.
 
CallMeKate said:
I didn't know it had a name, @Della , but I did the same thing some time ago. I sat there reading things from over the years and I kept thinking "omg, omg, why the heck did I keep a record of that?!" Scared the devil out of me when I realized my daughter would be finding them at some point... never wrote in one after that. 😨
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Me too, it made me cringe when I happened to find a diary I had kept. I had shared a lot of thoughts which it was unwise to do.
 
Rose65 said:
It is best. Do we really want anyone reading our thoughts? Perhaps keeping a diary is actually rather a mystery, could it be we seek an immortality of sorts? Yet the great diarists of the ages provide valuable history - such a Pepys.
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I’m not sure my journals would be interesting enough to read and to be brutally honest, when I burned them all, it felt almost like a betrayal to myself. Now with my memory failing, I’ve often wished I had kept them. I’ve got no kids who might be embarrassed by my words. Somehow reading them was comforting.
 
I think a diary kept carefully, keeping in mind that potentially anyone may read it, could be done. If the content was about capturing the essence of your days, recording interesting events or places, news going on and things future generations might value reading about.
 

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