I Have a Secret

I've been carrying this secret around with me in my purse for a little over a week. It's Jen Lee's Take Me with You: A Journal for the Journey and it has worked a little bit of magic for me.

Jen Lee is a luminous powerhouse of creative encouragement. She's a storyteller, a writer, a photographer and most of all an encourager. This beautiful journal is filled with little suggestions and encouragements, not really like the writing prompts you often get in journals like this. The book features little whispers of encouragement, the kind you might get from a dear friend or a sister.

And here's the magic, most times when I pull out a journal to write in the two minutes of time I have in line somewhere or picking up Max from school, I feel supremely self conscious. My gremlins go on high alert and start shouting, What are you doing? You are writing in public. It's weird! Someone will notice! Stop – put that pen away right now! When I pull this little journal out, all I can hear is Jen's encouraging voice saying, Go ahead, write it all down and then I do.

Jen's blog is here and if you have a writer or even a reluctant writer in your life, check out Take Me with You. It might be exactly what they need.