These journals are my friends on the writing journey. I pour my devotions, inspirations, heart breaks, outlines, character descriptions, lessons learned, you name it, in them.

• The first one, the blue one with white flowers, I stole from one of my daughters (I think it was originally from my mom), and is the one I started with. It’s funny to read, because, back then, my plot ideas and characters were completely different than what they are now. When I started I would track how many words I wrote daily, and how many words I had total. About three months after I started, on May 10th, with 80,133 words, I reached my goal of 80,000 words. And my computer broke, and my family blessed me with a new laptop for mother’s day!
• The second green one, from my friend Kara, I wrote a lot of my devotions from school in. It’s full of wisdom from other school teachers.
• The third, white one is from Erin. It has two beautiful birds on it. For a while I thought this would be a beautiful cover to the whole book. In this one I started figuring out my second draft and researching agents I liked. I actually sent my first draft out to seven agents and got seven rejections (or no responses) – that’s when I realized a first draft ain’t gonna cut it. What was I thinking???
• The fourth, light teal one, is from Ben and is a mix of a million things. My writing, devotions, life, all swirled together. By this time I’m on my 5th draft (I think?) and I’ve had Mirror of Sparrows professionally critiqued, and I’m trying to pull the shattered pieces back together with everything I’m learning (still doing that, actually).
• The fifth, dark teal, also from Ben (a package deal). I’m still in this one. Hoping for breakthrough. If only I could nail the first chapter, I feel like that’s the cornerstone, and then I can properly build everything else.
• The last, black one. Just got this one from Faithbox. It reads “Can’t stop us now” on the cover. It’s beautiful, and blank. It’s waiting for me, and I hope it will mark a new season.

I love these journals. They are like friends who don’t judge, who don’t get tired of listening, remembering and reflecting with you. I can vomit into them, and they don’t despise you for it (and I don’t feel guilty). Or I can create beauty in them, and they keep it safe.

Today, they help me see how far I’ve come, and they help me to keep on going.