sacred journaling, sacred work
I'm not a hoarder. My office is tidy, but if you opened my drawers and peered inside, you would find some random items—gifts I hold onto trinkets or cards that are special to me. One such item was a journal given to me in 2018 by my then-CIO at Dignity Health, Deanna Wise. Every time I opened my top right drawer, I would see it, smile at the memory, and wonder when I would start using that journal. For a long time, it was simply too important for me to "ruin."
It was December 31, 2022, and my friend and I decided to spend the last afternoon of the year at the spa. We would relax, get massages, and journal about the following year in the quiet room. That morning, we headed into Paper Source to pick out our 2023 journals. She found hers, but while I looked, I determined that this was the year I would use the vintage leather journal Deanna had given me five years earlier.
I was waiting for my massage, and I sat down with my journal and began updating my rule of life for 2023. A rule of life differs from a new year's resolution in that it isn't usually focused on tasks like "I'm going to lose fifteen pounds by exercising five days a week" but on statements about who you are, how you conduct yourself, and what is important to you. Many methodologies and practices are available for how you write a rule of life, but for me, it comes down to my behaviors, what I believe, and how I will live a life of faithfulness.
The key theme I walked away with from my first journaling session centered on the sacredness of work. Some of the statements I wrote were:
Work is sacred, and I am dedicated to helping people do the best work they are capable of
I am committed to guiding people and helping them discover the sacredness of their work
I am FOR people
I want to see work transformed from drudgery to sacredness.
Four days later, I walked into my first meeting of 2023. I had my laptop and 2018 journal. I hugged a colleague I had not seen in a long time, and she told me, "I remember that journal. I still have it, I have never used it." I said, "It has sat in my drawer for the last five years but I decided that for some reason, this was the year, it was time." So far, 2023 has been difficult, but every time I open my journal, I am awed that of all years, this was the year I chose to use it. Looking at it on my desk encourages me; I feel grounded when I journal in it, and I see who I really am when I read my reflections.
While I could have picked this year's journal from Paper Source, Target, or Amazon, I am so grateful that a tug on my heart encouraged me to pull out my unused vintage journal and begin writing my 2023 journey about the sacredness of work in it.
Over the coming months, I will share more reflections from my journal, more of the notable items hidden in my office desk, and more about creating a rule of life. But today, I encourage you to write down some belief statements about what and why you do what you do. I would love to see some of your reflections in the comments.
Let's discover the sacredness of work together.
