Sunday, July 31, 2011

The Time Has Come


We'll I did it, my 30 days of blogging.  I think I'm back in the swing of things.  I use to do between four and seven posts a month.  I'm good for that.  I'll keep you aware of my dad, his house, the program, and anything else that hits my fancy.
I consider blogging as life through my eyes.  Someone could write about the same thing and have a different take.  We did some journaling at a family reunion many years ago.  We had paper and pencil available throughout the event and promoted the idea that everyone should write or draw a picture about their experience at the gathering.  Everyone had input, giving a more clear picture of the total reunion.

When it was all said and done and I had put the book together, Grampy Blair (Hughie's dad), looked through the book and said, "No one wrote about going out in the kayaks!"  We had rented a beachhouse and had a lot of the activities involving the beach, ocean, etc.  He thought that was an incredible experience being out on the ocean with dolphins dancing around him.  He was upset that it hadn't been covered and included in the book.  Everyone else wrote about their highlights, but evidently the kayaks weren't high enough on the priority list for anyone else to write about it.  Grampy should have wrote about his experience.  He's gone now and wouldn't we all delight knowing about how he felt about it other than what I have written here.
I have used this experience in journal presentations and at other family reunions when I've tried to encourage people to write. What you have to say is important.  So many people are intimidated about writing. (I know, I'm am.) If you can't write, have someone write for you.  I remember my grandmother dictating letters to me to send to her friends because her education was so limited and she felt awkward writing; yet letters were the mode of the day and she wanted to communicate with her friends and family.

I keep a journal, but I add blogging as kind of a way to communicate with friends and family or I suppose the world for that matter.  It's kind of like a journal.  It can be an avenue for me to voice my opinion, share pictures, all sorts of things. I can even put it in book form if I want to. I am spurred on by the fact that I know I would like to read something an ancestor wrote, and no doubt, I'll be an ancestor someday.

What could you do better for your children and your children’s children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved? Some of what you write may be humdrum dates and places, but there will also be rich passages that will be quoted by your posterity.

We hope you will begin as of this date. If you have not already commenced this important duty in your lives, get a good notebook, a good book that will last through time and into eternity for the angels to look upon. Begin today and write in it your goings and your comings, your deeper thoughts, your achievements, and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies. We hope you will do this, our brothers and sisters, for this is what the Lord has commanded, and those who keep a personal journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives.

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