{"id":1377,"date":"2018-10-01T11:01:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/?p=1377"},"modified":"2018-10-01T11:01:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T15:01:00","slug":"document-the-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/01\/document-the-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"J is for the Journalers Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why blog?<\/p>\n<p>Truth be told I needed a place to practice writing.\u00a0 Travel, writing, photography and scrapbooking have always been my passions.\u00a0 These passions led me to open a scrapbook store in 2002.\u00a0 My mission there was to give people their voice. Unfortunately I had to close the store shortly after the recession hit.\u00a0 I had learned a great many things.\u00a0\u00a0 I love encouraging others to trump their own horns and to celebrate themselves and I needed a way to continue to be able to do that.\u00a0 I also realized I had a great passion for story telling and adventure.<\/p>\n<p>I truly believe that every day presents an opportunity to design your own life, living &#8220;on purpose&#8221; if you will.\u00a0 But only you can tell your story.\u00a0 Your perspective is completely unique.<\/p>\n<p>We can use our creativity to take great pictures, but after years of teaching I often find that most people don&#8217;t take the time to really think about the &#8220;why&#8221;.\u00a0 Why did you take this picture?\u00a0 Aren&#8217;t photos a way to freeze time?<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever looked at a photo and asked, &#8220;Who are these people&#8221;?\u00a0 Have you questioned what they were doing or why they had gathered?\u00a0 Have you seen great pictures of interesting places and wondered where the photo was taken?<\/p>\n<p>Photos are a representation of the lives we have lived.\u00a0 They are tiny snapshots of memories.\u00a0 Each time a picture is viewed it should answer who, what, when, where and why.\u00a0 It should never be left open to interpretation.<\/p>\n<p>The same is somewhat true of writing.\u00a0 Words on a paper will form a visual image, but it will be based on the readers experiences and interpretations, not necessarily on what actually happened.<\/p>\n<p>I regularly taught my students the value of journalling.\u00a0 I would begin my class by asking the students to view a photo of my sons playing in a cornfield.\u00a0 I asked people to write a short note about what they thought the picture represented.\u00a0 Most said kids having fun in the fall.\u00a0 A few guessed a family reunion.\u00a0 How far off the answer always was!\u00a0 In actual fact, it was a funeral.<\/p>\n<p>It was indeed one of my favorite pictures of my sons but without including this information, the photo was very difficult to connect with the event.<\/p>\n<p>I began this blog as a way to push myself.\u00a0 I want to lead a more purposeful life.\u00a0 I am forever writing my own legacy, which means I have to constantly examine who I am, the values I am trying to teach and the ways I spend my days.<\/p>\n<p>I am a perfectly imperfect human being.\u00a0 I may not be a master at writing or photography but I can only improve with constant effort at learning better skills. \u00a0 I love encouraging others to do the same.\u00a0 So the blog has been born.<\/p>\n<p>I hope you will join me on this adventure.\u00a0 Life is a journey meant to be shared.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s start at the beginning by getting to know each other.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why blog? Truth be told I needed a place to practice writing.\u00a0 Travel, writing, photography and scrapbooking have always been my passions.\u00a0 These passions led me to open a scrapbook store in 2002.\u00a0 My mission there was to give people their voice. Unfortunately I had to close the store shortly after the recession hit.\u00a0 I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[277,303,343,366],"class_list":["post-1377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalers-journey","tag-photography","tag-scrapbooking","tag-travel","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}