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Gabriela Bonina's avatar

This is awesome. Last year I took a monasticism course during my senior year of college where I was required to journal every 30 minutes of my waking hours for 3 months. Those were maybe the best 3 months of my life!

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B.A. Lampman's avatar

Wow. That's... a lot of journaling! How did you have time to LIVE? I imagine it would have been very eye-opening though.

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Gabriela Bonina's avatar

I was basically a full time student monk so I actually had a lot of time on my hands haha. You can look up “Justin McDaniel NYT” and you’ll get a feel for the how and why

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B.A. Lampman's avatar

Fascinating! I googled as instructed and read a NY Times article written last May. Ve-ry in-ter-es-ting. I was at University in the 80's so there were no laptops or phones in class. Thank God.

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Angela Bone's avatar

I'm in. Journal me onto the list! :-)

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B.A. Lampman's avatar

Excellent---I'll keep you posted. Thanks Angela!

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Anne Kadet's avatar

“I think he saw it as navel-gazing and pseudo-writing—not intellectually rigorous enough maybe. Too subjective, too reflective, too me me me.”

Whew! As an obsessive journaler for 40-plus years I think that’s the point! I can be all me me me in my journal every morning and then move on for the rest of the day.

Thanks for a great post BA! Did you see Jillian’s early this week on how Gandhi said it is our moral duty to keep a diary?

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B.A. Lampman's avatar

Thanks Anne! And yes, I saw Jillian's post on Gandhi... it made me feel downright weepy. Journaling is endorsed by Gandhi, people!!! Get on it!

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Jill Margo (she/her)'s avatar

I'm absolutely in! I do messy morning pages sometimes and immediately rip them up. I'm interested in deepening the practice of journaling though and love your perspective here. Makes me excited about it. Also: I will be laughing all day whenever I think of David's artwork.

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B.A. Lampman's avatar

Fantastic! And yes, David's drawing, haha. It would appear that we're both quite well endowed 😅

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Katy Hutchison's avatar

Please put me on the list 🩵

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B.A. Lampman's avatar

😀❤😀❤😀

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David P. Smith's avatar

Please don't melt my mind Mommy

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B.A. Lampman's avatar

I'll melt your mind and you'll like it!

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Mason Currey's avatar

Love this workshop idea — count me in! I'm a sporadic journal-keeper and would like to experiment with other ways to do it that might feel more, I don't know, vital.

And, holy shit, that Emerson quote!!! "In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty." I have never quite thought of it that way but I think that is exactly right. (Also love the phrase "good-humored inflexibility.")

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B.A. Lampman's avatar

Amazing, thanks Mason! You're on the list... though the date has yet to be determined. And yes, that quote... it's devastating 😅. Damn you, Ralph Waldo Emerson!

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Kristine's avatar

So little left of my mind to melt 🤣. But am intrigued…I tend to be the one who jots stuff down and then promptly burns or shreds the mess of words my pen has scrawled. I could be convinced to give this a go under your guidance BA!

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