This is from Henri Nouwen’s Daybook of Wisdom and Faith, Bread For The Journey.  The book is a daily meditation and the next two posts are from the meditations for April 27 and April 28.  Obviously those aren’t the dates I’m posting them, but they fit.

Writing can be a true spiritual discipline.  Writing can help us to concentrate, to get in touch with the deeper stirrings of our hearts, to clarify our minds, to process confusing emotions, to reflect on our experiences, to give artistic expression to what we are living, and to store significant events in our memories.  Writing can also be good for others who might read what we write.

Quite often a difficult, painful, or frustrating day can be “redeemed” by writing about it.  By writing we can claim what we have lived and thus integrate it more fully into our journeys.  Then writing can become lifesaving for us and sometimes for others too.