I love the movie Sabrina. Not the old one, the remake with Harrison Ford and Greg Kineear and Julia Ormond. Seriously, I love it. When it first came out on video (yes video) I cannot tell you how many times I watched it. Perhaps it spoke to me about the power we have to change our future.
But there is one line that rings out to me still today. Sabrina (Julia Ormond) goes to Paris and meets a lovely French woman, Martine (Valérie Lemercier). Sabrina is struggling with finding herself and her new French friend says this: “I took a year, a whole year, and I walked. I found a spot I loved or a bridge and I wrote nonsense in a journal. Then, suddenly, it was not nonsense.”
Sometimes when we write, we find ourselves. And it doesn’t happen instantly, or quickly, or when we think it should. It happens suddenly, after time, after much sorting and thinking and being honest.
I am journaling aggressively this year. My husband walked in the other day and asked “Are you writing nonsense?” I said “Yup, my suddenly hasn’t come yet.”
Of course, it might come easier if I were writing nonsense in Paris.
Or on a beach.
Definitely if I were on a beach.
Many times, in our writing group, when we write for a half hour using a prompt as our starting point, we find out something of ourselves. It might be small, or it could be quite revealing. It is always therapeutic.
Would be better on a beach, though.
Pat Meyers
www.PatriciaMeyers.com
Paddle Creek Writers 
I love that movie too! And I love journaling. It’s so helpful. Couldn’t live without it. I just moved to Queensland, mostly so I could write at the beach. I really do think it’s had a big impact on my writing and been so good for me.
Oh yes, definitely a beach.
Susan
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that movie, now I’m interested in seeing it again. I too, would love to write on a beach! Especially after this weekend’s snowfall. I’m ready to write in spring weather.