Bismarck, North Dakota - News

When Anne Frank wrote in her diary in the 1940s, she was doing what journal-writers do - working out in words her feelings about the world, about human nature, her discoveries about herself. As it happened, the private thoughts of a young girl who died in a concentration camp have become an illumination for people around the world.

From Emperor Marcus Aurelius to the Apostle Paul to Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards, journal-keeping is an age-old way of paying attention to our spiritual lives, said Carl Koch, program director of the Franciscan Spirituality Center in LaCrosse, Wis., who will lead a journaling retreat Oct. 21-23 at Sacred Heart Monastery in Richardton.

There's a kind of dance, he said, between our beliefs and our day-to-day lives. Journaling is one way to work through the conflicts between what we believe and what we do.

It's also a way of discovering things about ourselves, he said.

One of Koch's favorite quotes is from poet Robert Frost: "I write to find out what I didn't know Iknew."

Especially in spontaneous journal writing, Koch said, "we inevitably find we always write over the edge of our consciousness. We generally find out things we didn't know were going to pop out."

In a sense, journal keepers writing in a religious context are writing their own Bible, their own "salvation history, telling the story of our encounters with the divine, the development of our relationship with the holy,"he said.

A really profitable journal needs to have honesty, spontaneity, freedom: That can make people hesitant about doing so.

"The irony is the only way to free ourselves from those fears is to do it," he said.

The profit of journaling is not necessarily the content, but the fact that we are expressing what comes from our soul, giving ourselves a chance to look, reflect and be aware, he said.

People seldom tell their own stories, because they don't think they're worth hearing, Koch said.

Not so, he said: "Everyone's life is worth a book:Ifirmly believe that."

Journal keepers often get their start by recording day-to-day events in a diary. Or they have a moment they need to capture and reflect on. Some write poetry or haiku or make lists. Some people keep prayer logs or write letters to God. They record favorite quotes or ideas for projects.

Then they branch out by looking back, reflecting on something that happened, or they begin to write about decisions they need to make. Another method of journaling is to write dialogues with people you're in conflict with, or create a dialogue with someone who has died. Journal-writers can rehearse a conversation they'd like to have, or see things from another person's point of view.

All these things really a form of meditation, he said, "an exploration of what Ibelieve, to be aware of the shape of my life."

As with any kind of meditation or awareness activities, Koch said, journal-writing "stirs the fear that I will get shaken by what is revealed in this journal."

However, "99 percent of the time, this is something Ineed to know to be a better human being," Koch said.

(Reach Karen Herzog at 250-8267 or karen.herzog@;bismarcktribune.com.)