Keeping a diary

Several years ago I set up a Google calendar to record what I'd accomplished during the day. It was a private calendar, just for me. I didn't share it with anyone. It worked well for many years, but last fall, when I knew for certain 2022 would be the year I finally retired, I wanted something more personal. Something I could write in. For the first time in many years, I purchased a desk calendar. 

Probably fifteen years ago a friend sent me a very nice Daytimer as a Christmas present. I loved it and used it for several years before Google calendars came about. It was customizable and comfortable back then, but not so now. I changed. It did not. Not wanting to part with it since it was a gift, I slipped it back into the bottom drawer of my great-grandfather's desk and there it will remain, probably for a few more years. A spiral-bound book is a lot easier to keep than loose pages. 

I find that I record appointments on the Google calendar as well as in the diary. I like the reminder option that syncs with my phone. And it doesn't hurt to have them listed in more than one place. But there is something soothing about writing things down on paper. Perhaps it's the times I grew up in, or perhaps it's that the diary will be tangible evidence that I existed. That I prospered. 

I found bits and pieces of journals my mother began at the beginning of several different years but never followed through with. I wish she would have continued. To read her thoughts - ones she never shared with me - brought me to tears. There is so much she committed to the page that I never knew. 

Maybe someday one of my young cousins will find my 2022 diary and read through it. What will they think of their reclusive cousin who lived in the woods? I can only hope they find it entertaining. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, journals, diaries, simple country pleasures, a writer's life, old-fashioned love song, family, country living, rural lifestyle, retirement, calendars