Journaling the Byways of Lifetime Journeys

This is a book about journeying and the journal that covers a specific journey.  A journey may suggest travel or passage from one place within oneself to another, such as from youth to maturity.   If one looks at that particular definition, it can be assumed that all people are on a journey as they live out each day.

 As I began to think of journeys, I came to the realization that my vision was very limited.  I tended to think of journeys as being those extended trips that take me to new locations, new countries, new vistas of sightseeing.  A journey was those trips that I took to foreign  countries;   when my experiences brought me to natural wonders - these were journeys.   Most of us do not consider daily living as a journey on a day by day basis.

In this book, I would add these additional words about journeys.  There is one’s life journey that takes a whole lifetime, whether short or long.  In the midst of that journey, there are other byway stations that connect, cause interaction and change one’s life journey.  These have to do with a wide variety of life moments.  Some journeys are uniquely one’s own, but some, probably most, connect with other people’s journeys and they, in turn, may add to the journey, to the way of journeying, and the changing of more than one journey.  Most of us do not always have a plan that requires thinking about many byways – they just happen and so do the consequences of the pathway. Some of these pathways can be personal, some go far afield because of one’s interest in a particular place or subject. 

This book is told in journal form.  One cannot miss the conjunction of journal and journey – both speaking of “a day”.  Journals are made up of days, as are journeys. These journal entries are not daily writings, but captured thoughts as one moves through life and discovers vital ideas that need to be a part of a lifetime journey.

In this book we examine the journal of a woman, named Lydia – not a real person, but a woman who shares her journal days with every person who posts important happenings as they move through life.  Lydia is, in fact, every woman who sees herself as a journeyer; sees her life as a lifetime journey, but sees that it also contains many byways and a variety of journeying.

                The name, Lydia, was chosen from the Bible (Acts 16:14).  She was a business woman, a seller of purple.  One can assume that she made many journeys as she travelled, selling her royal purple wares.  One can only assume that the biblical, Lydia, kept a journal of her trips and her sales, and even, of the people with whom she met. 

In Journaling the Byways of Lifetime Journeys, Lydia will share some of the places of visitation that seem to be a part of most people’s journeys– some vital, some not serious, but all a part of the lifetime journey.  Most of them could be a part of anyone’s journey.  There are many other byways that could be included, but in this journal, Lydia has selected these byways as being vital in her life. 

This Journaling, told mostly in poetic form, is not really a journal about a specific person, but rather it is as if this Lydia person takes byways, that may be a way to change and enlarge the understanding of a single person’s journey.  In addition to Lydia’s journal entries of her byways, she has included “Thoughts for Reflection,” in prose form as a part of her Journal.  These thoughts have been a way of leading into her daily penning of her journal.

As you wander through the byways and the journals of Lydia, may these words enrich your own life journey as you look at life through a different lens and find your own byways to fulfill God’s plan.