My first diary had a red cloth cover and a tiny lock and key. I’d write in it everyday about what was important to me at the time, like “Today I wore my new blue shorts with that shirt I got at the mall. I have a crush on Jeremy. He is so cute!”

These days, I still think about clothes and men - don't we all? But I also create art and poetry that’s not so easy to express in everyday conversation. My journal is a place to privately explore the personal mysteries of my own womanhood.

Journaling is therapeutic - a great way to process difficult emotions. A journal can also serve as a scrapbook, and I like using unlined books so I can paste in photos, dried flowers and other tidbits of my life that I want to remember. I’ll often pull out my watercolors and add a little art to the mix, to express in colors what words sometimes can’t. We've blogged about many wonderful eco-journals here:

Elephant dung paper
Nantaka Joy
Traveler's creative tool kit
Making your own notebook

By the way, one of my favorite online journaling blogs is Elizabeth Perry’s Woolgathering. "Looking, thinking, drawing, being" proclaims the tagline. A few images, a few words, and her thoughts become alive.