GREAT thread!
I have kept a diary since I was a kid.
granted -
my life has been such that
at the end of the year,
I had to BURN it,
but I kept them all the same.
I do today as well.
As an ex alcoholic,
I notice that i get mixed up
on when something happened.
even if I only write
the events of the day
I go back
and see that I was able to keep
at least
the daily discipline of writing it down.
It's helped me on MANY an occasion
to remember exactly what day what happened.
I draw in my journal as well
and under pain of death from my friends
never to burn another one.
the burning thing though -
it can be a VERY freeing thing -
to put flame to a terrible year.
I'm just saying -
it worked for me.