Memories, Dreams and Reflections: the value of a journal

Can we remember where we were in 2000?  Or 1990?  Or yesterday?

Sometimes I can; other times I can't find a landmark in my memory bank to take me to that time in my life I am struggling to locate.

Hurricane Katrina 2005 

Recently, someone asked me, "What were you doing 14 years ago?"  I only have a vague notion and suspect that summer I was in Peru.  I keep trying to find the key to open the door to that time in my life.

But in August 2005 I was in Raleigh, North Carolina.  I was enroute to Asheville, but never made it.  

When I left New York there was talk about a hurricane, but I never suspected I'd get caught up in it, indirectly, when North Carolina's coast was hit hard, and all the petrol stations were closed, and weather reports discouraged travel. 

I had a very good time in Raleigh, spent some quality time with one artist friend, discovered Askew Taylor but I disappointed myself and my working partner in Asheville when I didn't make it for our meeting.

C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections

Now if I had kept an active journal the way Jung did, I would have those keys to what was happening in my life. 

The Red Book, C.G. Jung

 And was he among the first to create an artist journal?

I often did keep a journal, but not always, and most recently I actually destroyed about ten journals.  I thought them too personal to leave for heirs.