Journaling’s No. 1 gift to me over the years––a gift that has become even more precious as I’ve gotten older––is that of a spirit tonic. As may be true for others, I often wake in the morning with an overriding feeling of blah. I’ve learned through practice not to dwell on the blah but to go straight to the kitchen and the Mr. Coffee where, if I remembered the night before, the brewer is all set to brew. All I need do is press Start, feed the cat (the cat will not let me skip this step), then, as the brewer is brewing, shuffle into the front room and click on a light, fetch my journal and Vision Elite pen, get my first glorious mug of coffee, settle into my chair, and begin scribbling. I can pretty much count on it: thirty minutes after I woke with that overriding feeling of blah, my blah will have vanished, to be replaced by one of looking forward to the new day. For me, that’s the miracle of journaling.