Consider how you might add to the peace in the world as you write in your journal.

No matter the time of year, we really do begin again each day.

You might be wondering what journal writing has to do with the craziness within the world. I propose that journal writing can help us to create more stability within ourselves, and that, one by one, can help create a calmer and more unified world.

Occasionally I have trouble getting to sleep at night, and my mind seems to jump from one thing to another offering images that can be from my childhood or last week. They aren't necessarily unpleasant, just very busy, and they don't stop. I'm guessing that my brain in just creating a sense of what's going on in the world---general chaos. My poor brain needs help to sort things out, to gain calm, and to see again more clearly.

Writing in my journal--writing by hand, not on the computer--helps me to first spit out the images that are rolling around in my brain, and then to settle down, gain peace, and brighten my perspective. And sometimes those insights appear with such clarity and wisdom that it feels like magic...journal magic.

And so I want to make a proposal for us all. Let's choose, in this coming year(that begins today), to take more time each day to listen more deeply to the still small voices within us. You might even try setting a timer for five or ten minutes to write and first release the chaos, then making space to open to the wisdom and the joy that really does linger all around us. This is one way we can all participate in making the world a place of greater peace, for ourselves, first, and in so doing, spreading that energy to those around us. Each of us has magic within...and we just need to take the time to open to it.

May your days be bright as you move through your year and may blessings be abundant for you.