Justifying A Journal?

It has been suggested that people would get more out of travel if they weren’t taking up precious time in keeping a journal. I suppose it is a very individualized preference. As for me, I’m still packing a journal. A bit of reflection adds to any experience.

WHAT I WRITE ABOUT?

A blind man told me once that when he travels, he includes the smells of the different places he visits. (I had not thought to consider that so much, especially when it comes to noting the good smells.)

Sometimes, I see the most interesting images in the rock formations and write pages about what my rock photos are all about. I might jot down information found in museum signage.

Sometimes, I write about a confusing encounter and days later, I am explaining what that was all about.

Sometimes, it can be good to draw and notate what you saw, in case those Northern Lights photos don’t appear like how you remembered seeing it.

WHY I LIKE MY JOURNALS. 

Sometimes, reading a journal shows you just how much you have adjusted to the road. Week One may have you pushing aside supper when the ants seem to be crawling all over your rice while Week Four might comment on how you picked out each ant from your rice as fast as they showed themselves. How long does it take you to adjust to understanding they mean yes when it looks like they are shaking their heads no? What can you not seem to adjust to? What was it you didn’t notice adjusting to?

Journals can be a great learning tool for learning about you. Sometimes, it’s not so much that the foreign places are strange, but more that we are set in our ways and oblivious to it.

“Journal writing is a voyage to the interior.” -― Christina Baldwin

Here is my prior post on Travel Journals.

TATTOO—Journeys on My Mind by Tina Marie L. Lamb is available at Amazon and BarnesandNoble and iBooks and Audible.

Buy it. Read it. (Or listen to it.) Let me know what you think. –TMLL