Let's start at the very beginning.
"A very good place to start."
I've often heard stories of journaling. Usually the story is about a late parent of grandparent, who's journals have found their way to a loved one, who gains an understanding or closeness that is touching and beautiful.
My own father passed away last year, and my mother shared bits of letters he had written to her in past years. He wrote one when I was born, and the joy and promise evident in his letter was beautiful to me.
The thoughts that journal-writers capture seem deeper and purer to me. Do they have the gift of writing that makes this so? Or is the practice of journaling the secret sauce?
"When you read you begin with A-B-C"
I started thinking about this idea of journaling as a rebellion against this social media obsessed age. Take time to meditate, reflect, calm your mind and spirit, and collect your thoughts and memories in a private journal. No ads. No algorithms. No selling/sharing of your private data. No dopamine hits. No cost.
One other problem with journaling is that there's no searching system. You have to know the date to find the entry in a journal book. Why not build a system for private journaling that is indexable and searchable? Combine some new technology with old school practices?
And so letter journal was birthed. I've only just started journaling (it's maybe been a month?) but it's already changed my life in concrete ways.
"When you sing you begin with do-re-mi"
Being able to jot down thoughts at any time and come back later to clean them up is great, but the end of day 'diary' entries; these taught me something. When I took the time to reflect on what happened today and what I should write down in my journal entry, I realized that there were so many things that we do that aren't worth writing down. I've never written about TV shows, movies, or sporting events. What I started to think about was:
If something isn't worth writing down in the journal, then should I really spend time doing it?
This revelation has changed the way I live 'in the moment'. That is, I think a lot more about whether or not what I am doing is valuable. It's shifted my priorities throughout the day. I want to care for people more. I want to build deeper relationships. I want people to journal! :)
So the letter journal is a system where you write your own journal entries that are private. But it also gives you the ability to send 'letters' to people you care about. You can select any of your journal entries and send them as letters to specific people or groups of people. Your family, or your book club, or your hockey team, etc.
See the documentation or just login and start journaling yourself. :) Send some letters to your friends and build out the caring network!