When my friend Anne was nearing end of life, she told me that if she could have one last journey, she would return to Catalina. Anne (writer, author, editor, teacher and best friend to her many friends and so dearly and tenderly loved by all of us) grew up on Catalina Island before World War II.
My grandfather's second wife also grew up on Catalina during these years and Anne was friends with my step-grandmother’s younger sister. Both families were not elite island people, they were the kids of hired hand workers and lived on a section of the island where only the workers lived.
Life on the island was grand for Anne. She swam in the ocean daily, road her bike, hiked the hills and had a wide circle of happy riff-raff friends. But Ginger, who came to be my second grandmother, tried to fake it and did her best to fit in with the high-class island people and she was never accepted as equal. The pain she carried scarred her spirit. But Anne didn’t bother herself with high society values, woes or wishful thinking. She reached for life with zest and found joy and meaning. But when the war broke out everyone was forced to leave the island.
Over the years, long ago, I spent many long weekends and vacations on Catalina.
One afternoon when Anne was near the end of her full life circle, on a whim and very spur of the moment, I created my Earth and the Great Sea blog and I posted some of my Catalina Island photos for Anne, and I gave her the link. We talked about each photo and she told me rich backstories, with one memory jogging another.
Anne led a journal writing circle for many years. After her walk on earth ended, I was lost, not only without Anne, but also without those up close and personal journaling sessions, and that's when I came up with the idea of using this blog for journaling online and sharing my stories like we did in Anne’s writing circles.
And this is how my online journal Earth and the Great Sea, began.
While giving myself an open field to explore, my focus also shifted toward reducing the clutter in my mind, or else I will have little to give to my soul, my family, friends, readers, community, and to the world at large. There is much more for me to discover.
What I learned in Anne's journal writing classes and want to share with you.
Although I'm an essayist, a memoirist, the author of two memoirs, and a contributor to fifteen books, let's forget about all of that for now. Because everything I write and publish grows from something I have written in my journal. First, I set the timer on my phone for 10 minutes, and then with a pen and paper I write as fast as I can. I don't worry about spelling or punctuation, and I don't stop writing until the timer goes off. The purpose is to tap into my mind, and see what might be lurking in my subconscious.
Later I pick my way through the scribbles and find nuggets I can expand on to share with you here in my online journal. But I don't share polished essays here, it's not my goal for these pages. I view it the way my writer-friend Patricia explains within her blogging pages. "This space isn't about performance or expectations, it is writing in its house clothes."
Some people like to write in one of those pretty hard bound journals with a beautiful cover. But I prefer to write in a rugged composition book. The less fancy my journal, the easier it is for me to get down to the business of writing without feeling I need to live up to high expectations.
Short, ten-minute timed writings also keep me from feeling like I need to live up to high expectations.
When I have plenty of time, I continue writing in my journal after the timer goes off, and sometimes I write three or four pages of raw, rough draft thoughts. But even those short ten-minute journal writing sessions have great value. Through journal writing new discoveries about myself will be revealed, because our writing is smarter than we are.
Anne taught me that everyone can write and that writing yields a path through the world we live in, and we can all write whether we call ourselves writers or not.
Writing claims our world, and as spiritual beings writing is a powerful form of prayer and meditation, connecting us to our own insights and to a higher and deeper level of inner guidance.
Terra Trevor, at home in my head here at Earth and the Great Sea.
