Everybody’s writing today. We’re crafting emails that would make our high school English teacher proud, posting pithy comments on blogs, and editorializing on our own web pages.

Will this kind of discourse replace the act of writing private thoughts in journals and diaries?

I hope not.

Writing something in a bound book daily is a practice I pretty much can’t quit. Some journal entries are no more than my list of things to do, encoded descriptions of dreams, drifty ramblings, descriptions of proud moments or big worries. I’ll doodle, rant and talk to myself in my journal which I move from my bedside table to my purse. I’ve found that if I take my journal on the subway or bus, I’m never lonely.

“Artist’s Way” author Julia Cameron believes putting daily “morning pages,” or stream-of-consciousness writings, on paper with pen or pencil every day is a vitally important practice, a way to connect to any parts of yourself that aren’t being validated in more public contexts, as well as a way to create a stronger pipeline to your higher self or inner artist. Since blogs and social network sites are public displays, they’ll never serve the same function.

Here are some photos of journals that I found on a web site called divinegoddessdesigns.com. The one at the bottom looks most like mine. I like writing in inexpensive accounting journals (available in most office supply stores) because they have page numbers. But I always admire the prettier books you see in metaphysical bookstores, and I buy them for friends as gifts, especially when I know they’re experiencing something “big” (which is almost always, right?).

If young people (I guess I’m thinking mostly about girls) today are growing up believing that their snazzy blog or page on MySpace.com contains all they have to say about themselves, I think they’re very much mistaken. Do you have a journal writing habit? How close is it to your heart?