Hello friend,

When people first learn that I write in a journal every day, one of the first things they ask—after shaking their head for a bit and looking at me like I come from Mars—is, “What do you say???  How can you come up with something new every day?”  The truth is that I don’t set out to say something new and original in each entry.  I don’t make any sort of plan, really.  I write the dateline and then simply let my mind run.  I let it empty out whatever it needs to be rid of.  When a thought pops up, I do my best to not judge whether it is worthy of my ink or time; I just write it out and see where it leads.  My mind is brand new each day—partly because journaling cleans it out—so a day that looks the same on the outside gets processed quite differently on the inside.    Sure, I have gone through phases in my life when I was doing similar things every day or was attached to a particular topic in my mind—there have been lots of blogging thoughts the last couple of weeks, for instance—but always the entries are unique.  That is, except for one line.

“Life is beautiful.”  That is the one constant for me when it comes to my journal entries.  Life is beautiful.  I conclude every one of my daily entries with that line or some very close cousin to it (e.g. Life is truly beautiful.  Life is so very beautiful.  La vita e bella.).  That is my tagline.

“Why ‘Life is beautiful’?” you might ask.  And why the same thing every day?  Why even have a tagline?  Why not just come up with something new each time, letting it flow from your real mood at the moment you are finishing?  After all, you don’t really think Life is beautiful every day, do you?    Isn’t that a little phony, not to mention unoriginal, to write that same platitude each time?

These are valid questions.  For me, much of the answer is deeply rooted in one of my primary reasons for journaling in the first place.  One of the big ones for me is, as I mentioned above, simply emptying out my mind of the day’s rubbish and cleaning it up in a more organized way, bringing me clarity about how I really feel about the people and issues in my little world.  But the other main reason I journal, which is a natural offshoot of the first reason, is to remind myself of how truly and wildly blessed I am.  When I can see things clearly—with the falseness of my ego in check and the other rubbish of the day’s issues removed—it is so blatantly obvious to me that there are nothing but angels and miracles in my world, that I am blessed beyond my wildest imagination, and that I am, as a result, indescribably happy.

So it is that as I start to wrap up the day’s entry in my journal—after I have spilled out all of the day’s issues, stresses, and regular events, and then landed on the right side of clarity—I come around to these thoughts of my infinite blessings.  I often catch myself at that point in the writing with the biggest, most serene grin plastered across my face.  So, while I am the first to admit that writing “Life is beautiful” is a habit that could easily happen unconsciously like any other habit, I can honestly say that as I wrap up my writings every day and get ready to pen that last sentence, I feel it in my core.  I write it with conviction.  I have written it–and meant it–when I could not walk or stand up straight from the pain of a herniated disc, when my loved ones have died, and when I have felt most unsure about my future.  So yes, for me, that simple statement sums up best who I am at that moment in my day’s journal entry.  It is both a summary and a reminder to me.  And hey, if I am going to have one magnetic thought that my inner compass returns to every day as my True North, let it be that one.  Life is beautiful.  It may sound trite and phony to others, but it is, quite simply, my Truth.

So, what is your tagline?  If you had to choose something to say to yourself or about yourself every day, what would it be?  It could be a quote that inspires you—who doesn’t need a “Carpe diem” or “Follow your Bliss” or “Fortune favors the bold”?—or a line that summarizes who you are.  It could be your motto.  You might even think of it as your epitaph; what would you want that line on your tombstone to read?  It should be succinct but authentic, the latter being much more important.  Get out your journal and try to figure out what your tagline is.  It could start with a list of options, but it doesn’t have to.  Just start writing about who you are at your core.  It will find its way to you.  I would love to hear what you come up with.  Leave me a reply, and let’s get the conversation going.

I will leave you today with the last few lines from my own journal entry earlier this afternoon:

My heart is light with Divine energy, and that seems to sustain.  I am buoyed by today’s sunlight; it fills me.  Even amidst grogginess, I lay here with this persistent, peaceful grin upon my face.  It is evidence of my Truth, of my core Happiness.  Thanks be to God.  Life is truly beautiful. 

May your Truth set you free,

William