Image by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay
“Okay, so, I need to know what kind of magic is coming from these journals, because it is not OK that it is OK.”
“I keep a journal too, Edwina, and I guess it does seem like magic.”
Eight-year-old Edwina Ludlow was sitting in her cousin Col. H.F. Lee's lap, waving her journal around, while he tried not to laugh … he had known her great-grandmother as his great-aunt, and if this child was not the heir of “Grandee” Hilda Lee Slocum-Bolling, he didn't know who was.
“See, somebody shoulda told me that if you write all the stuff down, it is hard to stay mad about it – I mean, now that I don't have all this stuff to figure out in my head, now I don't feel like I have to break bad about so much of it – but I didn't give anybody permission to send an invisible wizard in here with an invisible magic wand and just be waving it over me like that! I don't even know if the wizard was even dressed right to be messing with me – he might have gotten up in the morning and done what people do on Zoom – just out here invisible wearing pajama pants to work!”
“Better the colonel than me,” Mr. Thomas Stepforth said to his laughing wife Mrs. Velma Stepforth.
“Like we don't have enough with our particular grandkids!” she said.
“Like I said, better him than me,” Mr. Stepforth said. “I have a hard enough time with my own anger management – I don't know what I would do with any of these little grandkids needing that kind of ministry. I'm still reeling from Gracie waking up happy and singing!”
“Yeah, she and Milton's idea about how hard-boiled eggs can be scrambled inside the shells while dancing to flamenco music was kind of an intense way to wake up because Milton has figured out how to crank Melvin's soundboard to the max!” Mrs. Stepforth said.
“And then Vertran videoed it all – I'm so thankful his audio didn't come out, because I don't really need tens of thousands of people watching me have a heart attack to eggs being used as silent castanets!” Mr. Stepforth.
“At least the child named after me stayed out of that, of course,” Mrs. Stepforth said. “Little Velma slept in!”
“That child could sleep through the end of world and then walk down the street of gold like she knew that was the plan for the day,” Mr. Stepforth said, “and all of them are basically calm. It could be worse!”
“So, let me see if I understand, Edwina,” Col. H.F. Lee said. “You're mad because you're not as mad?”
“I'm mad because nobody told me about the invisible wizard who may have pajamas pants on!” Edwina said.
“OK, let me ease your mind, cousin,” the colonel said. “There is no invisible wizard. It's just that journaling is a great way to manage your anger, because it lets you get it out of your head and see that you can handle it. You can ask for help from God or any of us who love you. You can use your good brain to figure out some things. And sometimes, we just need to make space in our heads, because a head that is too full can be upsetting.”
“Well, yeah, because Lil' Robert handles that by talking all the time but not everyone has time for all that,” Edwina said. “But I hear you on things being too full. I need space and it's hard being with so many people all the time!”
“Would you like to go for a walk?” Col. Lee said.
“You know, I really would,” Edwina said, and before long, colonel and cousin were out on a little refreshing walk, upon which they stopped so that Edwina could watch her big cousin draw the Blue Ridge in his personal journal.
“I like to draw peaceful images in my journal,” he said. “It helps me take peace with me, wherever I go.”
“Oh, like your own Insta-Resort – now I could get into this!” Edwina said, and took her journal and drew the flowers that were nearest to her.
Some time later, the colonel returned with a little cousin on his shoulder who had relaxed and gone to sleep. He tucked her in for a nap, and hung up his drawing of the Blue Ridge where she would see it when she woke up.
😊😊
This was so heartwarming, him hanging the picture for her to see really touched my heart.
I do not keep a journal, well, other than on here but I do write down things that bother me and it does help get it out of my head.
!ALIVE
!LOLZ
I keep TWO JOURNALS, plus all this ... I'm closer to Edwina than I let on!
I'm still laughing about the invisible wizard wearing invisible pajama pants. It creates such a great mental image! I find it helps me process things if I write them down. I have kept a diary since I was 12 years old. I don't call it a journal, because that sounds like it's full of deep thoughts. Those show up now and then in my diary, but not often.
I keep a notebook for a on-the-road journal and a journal for the house -- they are basically prayer journals, but every now and again, I get a deep thought too!
Little Ms. Edwina and that imagination -- still has some healing to do, but she'll get there as we laugh much of the way!