Writing about the hard times

Discussion in 'Journaling and Storytelling' started by MrsGaramer, Jul 23, 2017.

  1. MrsGaramer

    MrsGaramer Using my imagination

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    oh that's a great idea!!!!
     
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  2. gonewiththewind

    gonewiththewind I choose joy.

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    I'm with you - SO behind on printing!
     
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  3. MrsGaramer

    MrsGaramer Using my imagination

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    I did it!!!! I made the text tiny and I feel like I babbled on forever but I made my page! My grandfather has dementia and we went to see him recently. It was hard, I really don't think he knew who I was.

    [​IMG]
     
  4. GwenCreative

    GwenCreative Member

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    I think that makes it so good. That's a great idea. Hopefully, it'll be fine for your grandfather.
     
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  5. Karen

    Karen Wiggle it, just a little bit!

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    Your layout is gorgeous and I LOVE how you did the journaling in the letter shapes. I hope you are glad that you made this page, I think you will treasure it!
     
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  6. IntenseMagic

    IntenseMagic Some grannies cuss a lot. I'm some grannies.

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    Wonderful page @MrsGaramer! I love how you've done the journaling! My mother-in-law had dementia, I know how difficult it is for the family.
     
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  7. MrsGaramer

    MrsGaramer Using my imagination

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    Thank you! I am glad I made it, it was important
     
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  8. MrsGaramer

    MrsGaramer Using my imagination

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    Thank you!!! It's a horrible disease! I'm so sorry about your mother in law :(
     
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  9. Meredith78

    Meredith78 Well-Known Member

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    This was a really interesting thread to read, and very pertinent to me right now. My approach is to journal openly and honestly...but to not share everything I make. Some pages I scrap are effectively a personal diary entry so I put those in a different album to the general family albums. My story is important to me and it helps to record it, but I don't necessarily want to share it.
     
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  10. ElizabethW

    ElizabethW Pledging to lambda lambda polly

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    I am really struggling with this right now, too, and I've been reading and re-reading this thread for a few days. Journaling is the one aspect of scrapping that usually comes easily to me...I was always that kid who poured her heart out in diaries (and wow, those are cringingly hilarious now). But I've recently lost a very dear friend. No big scene or fight, just paths that have apparently diverged. (Side note: losing a best friend is really dang painful. Almost like a divorce or death). But my relatively recent history includes a lot of shared memories - including two really incredible trips that I would love to make into photo books. I don't know how to handle the fact that I shared those experiences with someone who has chosen to no longer be a part of my life. I want them to be travel books - not sad stories - but when I sit down to work on them, I just feel sad. Do I just limit myself to facts about the landmarks we saw? Do I try to somehow to journal my own experience in a way that doesn't sound quite as heartbroken as I feel? Or maybe I just wait for time to do what it does best....I don't know.
     
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  11. MrsGaramer

    MrsGaramer Using my imagination

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    This is how I scrapped when all I worked with was paper. I could hide things or make a separate journal for them. I think the increasing use of social media and sharing everything makes that harder for creative types. Most artists pour their hearts put into their craft (song writing, paintings, etc) and are hailed for being able to tap into our feelings but as scrappers, we are specifically here to capture our own memories. I struggle with how to share the good and the bad. Should I share the bad? Will my kids want to read that being a parent is hard? I don't know. We are in a special place in time right now where sharing is considered the norm. Sorry to ramble on, this has been in my heart lately :)
     
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  12. MrsGaramer

    MrsGaramer Using my imagination

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    @ElizabethW I think you should do both. Make the travel book, make it fun and add the good parts. Maybe make a separate page or journal for your feelings about losing a friend. It's funny, I lost a very good friendship many years ago and scrapped about it. I used her picture and a song. The song had meaning to both of us so I still used the page openly in my scrapping but I knew what it meant to me. Maybe a poem or a song could help.
     
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  13. Meredith78

    Meredith78 Well-Known Member

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    I figure that if I have it, I can choose to share it or not as things evolve. I know I've taken a lot of comfort and inspiration from knowing my Mum didn't necessarily have the "Hallmark" experience of parenthood all the time.
     
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  14. bestcee

    bestcee In love with places I've never been to

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    I would love to know that my mom struggled as I do somedays. When I've called her about annoying problems - like the potty training, she always has a story to tell me about me or my siblings and how you'll get through it on the other side. Usually she makes me laugh about it as my childhood which makes me what to document.
    There are deeper issues I know, and I loved listening to a podcast with Ali Edwards about how she handles documenting her son's autism. It may not be easy, but she takes a positive view on it because that's her. She does document the struggles, but she does it in more of an uplifting way, not a complaining way. She's not afraid to say today was hard though.
     
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  15. bestcee

    bestcee In love with places I've never been to

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    I have a trip that I've been working on documenting with a similar situation. I'm choosing to reflect on that time, and that at that time we were happy. At that time we were enjoying life and each other's company. Now, we might not be talking. I don't know if that will work for you?
     
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  16. rchansen

    rchansen in the sweet tooth recovery program

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    LOVE this idea!!
     
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  17. EHStudios

    EHStudios I am more clever than I think

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    THIS is why I'm so behind on my PL, (since Aug 2015). I can't get over the mental block to scrap about my sister's wedding trip in Seattle because it's also when we learned about one of my family member's, also a close friend's, heroin addiction, (she came on the trip with us & was to have a roll in the wedding, THAT didn't happen). So it was both an amazingly positive trip & a completely devastating one that just HURTS and still does...It's like you said, like a death. For me I need to be true to the anger & frustration side of it...and get everything out...but I just don't know how... One day I'll get over that mental block & get my memories down. My sister is frustrated that I'm so behind & shouldn't let that family member's poor choices keep me from things I love, like memory keeping.
     
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  18. ElizabethW

    ElizabethW Pledging to lambda lambda polly

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    @EHStudios ...geez, that is some hard, hard, hard stuff. I wish I had a good answer. I'm really sorry that happened to you.
     
  19. EHStudios

    EHStudios I am more clever than I think

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    She's been clean a few months now, but relationships will never be the same. Trust is a hard thing to get back. And not just the trust of her doing that, but that she could so easily lie & manipulate her own family... So yeah.. sucks!

    For memory keeping, I'll get where I can catch up. It's a mental roadblock now since whenever I get to thinking I'll do PL I get really sad about that week & then year plus following.
     
  20. bestcee

    bestcee In love with places I've never been to

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    Can you asterisk it? Write down the happy in PL, and include an asterisk reference an separate page, book, etc where you can just write all your anger and frustrations about the situation. You could use that for the whole journey?

    I don't typically censor PL too much. But I couldn't include the Christmas Eve events when a relative was found huffing air. So, I have a separate couple of journal only entries where I've talked about how Christmas has been ruined by this family member a couple of times. While I'm all about including real life, my kid was 3.5 that Christmas, and I don't think he'll remember that part. I don't want it to color his memories when he is looking at that year - his first Christmas with extended family nearby.

    :happyhugto you!
     
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