Quotes, song lyrics, great titles, all can evoke strong feelings and memories.  Try mixing up your journal entries by including a few of these along with your favorite photos.

The following image was taken on an ordinary day.  Alan and I were working on “flipping” a house for profit.  The home is an hour away from our residence.  I was meeting contractors at the house extremely early in this day.  This was my view along the way.  I was running a few minutes behind and could have chosen to bypass the opportunity to capture this beauty, instead I pulled into a parking lot.  For one moment I just breathed and enjoyed the view.  I might have journalled about the beautiful sunrise that morning, perhaps even discussed the wildfires that were raging on the West coast as being the cause for such extreme beauty. I might have given extensive detail about the pressure we were under and the deadlines still to meet.  Instead, I have chosen to pair this image with a simple quote of inspiration, giving it as a gift to others who may see it.  Our interpretations of this image then become vastly different, by limiting the things I say.  When I choose to do this in my journals,  you may not know the background story of this image, but it may just leave you imagining your own beautiful, peaceful day which is still full of opportunity!  Creating images and words  like this might make a great cover page to a travel album. Perhaps it will lead you to want to discover what else took place along my journey!

 

There are times when traveling, that there really doesn’t seem to be anything very exciting to write about. This can create a lull in my travel journals.  Once this happens, my journal may as well serve as ballast in the bottom of my suitcase.

On less than adventurous travel days, I must occasionally create a purpose to write.   What better way to do this than to “eat my words”!  Every country has some food that is unique to the locale.  Many of these, I am just too chicken to try, like Blood Pudding from Scotland, Century Eggs from China or Fried Spiders from Cambodia.  Even the American foods such as Rocky Mountain Oysters, otherwise known as bull testicles, would make a great story for someone visiting the U.S.A.  Just the thought of any of these foods turns my sensitive stomach.  I might be willing to photograph them, but I can promise. that I will probably never taste any of them!  So what is a girl to do when she knows that food can make a great topic for writing?  Grab dessert of course!  One such dessert, I sampled for the first time, while visiting Wales.  Below is the daily entry that went into my journal:

Sept 22, 2015.                                                                                                          I must have appeared confused as I stood outside the bakery window, trying to recollect the name of the Welsh bread, recommended by our hotel staff.  A local woman asked if she could help.  She explained that recipes for Bara Brith, also known as “speckled bread”, are handed down from generation to generation.  Some use honey to sweeten the simple bread, while others use brown sugar.  Some use yeast but more commonly, self rising flour is used, making the bread last much longer.  My loaf indicates that it will be good for nearly a full month!  All recipes include currents or other dried fruits that have been soaked overnight in brewed tea. As I taste Bara Brith for the first time, I am struck by its cake like consistency. Using a variety of spices, like all spice, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove to flavor the bread, images of cold autumn days immediately spring to mind.   I thank the lady for sharing this information.  I will never know her name, but I will think of her often, as I create this treat during the autumn months. Perhaps, many years from now, as my children read my journals, they will discover the day that I first sampled Bara Brith, turning it into a new autumn holiday tradition for them.

Sometimes we make things too hard…okay, most of the time we do this, or at least I do!  Journals may be intimidating for many, simply because of the fears of correct grammar or spelling.  Journal entries often look something like:

“Sept 18, 2015-Today I went to Niagara Falls, Ontario.  It is a beautiful place.”

Yawn!  This would hardly inspire me to open the journal again in one year, let alone 5, 10 or 50 years from now.  The only helpful bit of information that you might glean from this entry is the date that you were in a particular place.  Think of all the information that is missing here.  We spoke in yesterdays exercise, about engaging all of the senses.  Today, I want to speak about getting down the details.

Sometimes it just isn’t appropriate to whip out the journal and make an entry, like when I was being deluged  while sailing under the falls!  While on vacation, my mind is always thinking about what I want to say about the place.  If I work towards learning 10 things about each place I visit, I usually have a pretty good list of places to begin.  So the minute that we dragged our water laden butts off of the boat, we sat down for an ice cream.  This was the perfect time to make a list of 10 things I wanted to remember about this special place.  Here they are in no particular order:

1.  The unusual heat of a Sept day

2. Getting drenched by taking a boat under the falls

3. The spectacular waterfalls

4. Crowds of people and numerous cultures

5. Casino, hotels and tourist traps

6. My camera lens fogging up with the spray from the falls

7. Getting up to see the sunrise over the falls

8. Amazing gardens, landscaping

9. Color everywhere

10. Crazy cost of everything

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have nearly 75 photos from our day long trip to this area.  There are many approaches I could make to my entry.  I could probably find an image, to correspond to each of the 10 items above.  I could single out each of the above topics and write on them individually, or I could summarize our day and add one or two pictures and some memorabilia.  By creating this list of 10, my writing is non-restrictive.  It doesn’t require me to make any decisions at the time, it is just 10 things I want to remember about this place.  In fact, if I chose to stop here, I could actually enter just these 10 items under a date and heading and call it good.  There would still be more information available in these 10 items than in the original post example which I had listed.

 

In the end, this is how the entry for this photo looked:

We began our day at 6:30 am, when we woke specifically to witness the sunrise over the waterfall.   We were able to stay in our hotel room to do this.

After an extremely overpriced breakfast at IHop, the cost of which was 50 U.S.  dollars for pancakes and coffee, we walked for miles in the unusually hot, September sun.  Some things never change in this beautiful place. Most notably, we have always remembered the gardens.  Thankfully, they remain everywhere on the Canadian side of the waterfalls.  They are meticulously planted and maintained, unspoiled and unchanged since our last visit, nearly 20 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Casinos and hotels have sprung up since we were last here, one skyscraper, trying to outdo the other by going higher and higher, trying to achieve the best view of the falls.  In fact, all that seems to have happened is the creation of numerous visual obstacles.  I am sure they are beneficial to accommodate the over 22 million visitors that journey here each year, but they take something away from the natural beauty of this area. Last night when we walked down to view the falls in the dark, we passed numerous bars with outside entertainment.  The air was electric with music. I remember the first time we saw these falls at night.  Our son’s were little.  They were awestruck by the variety of colors being painted across the thundering spray.  There was no competition for their attention.

 

Now, as I stroll along the walkway bordering the falls, I turn my back to these distractions.   The only obstacles preventing the thousands of daily visitors, from tumbling over the edge are a fence and low wall.  In this regard, not much has changed.  Just like the 150,000 gallons of water, which spill over the cliff every second, the faces lining up along the fence, shift constantly.  Technology has changed the way we view the falls.  People no longer observe them in quiet serenity.  Instead Ipads are waved in the air trying to capture the beauty and power of the falls as they tumble hundreds of feet below.  Selfie sticks poke in an out of images, as people utilize their cell phones, to document their lives.  I have come equipped with my camera.  The spray from the falls requires me to continuously wipe the lens, to maintain a clear view.  Maybe it is not so different from my observations of the day.

I am intrigued at the eclectic mix of cultures.  I am fading quickly in this heat.  Within minutes of beginning our walk, we are already seeking a shady refuge. I wonder what it must be like under the black burqas of the Muslim women. Many of the Asian women seem to have anticipated the warm sun, as they stroll through the crowds with their umbrellas.  Dressed in beautifully adorned Saris, there is a riot of color as a group of Indian women walk past us.  I realize we are but one couple, in a vast mixture of people enjoying this great space.  As Alan and I take our place along the fence, ready to capture our own memories, we are reminded once again of how very small we are in this great world of ours.

When Alan and I began using the alphabet to set the course for our adventures, I wanted a way to keep track of which letters we had already used.  We decided to begin each date by photographing ourselves while holding the current letter.  I made a set of signs by attaching vinyl stencils to colorful poster board.  We keep the full set of letters in a large zip lock baggie, in my car.   This way, they are ready to detour at all times, to any place that we decide to discover.  Eventually I will decorate these signs a little more, but I wanted something simple to get started.  I am thinking as we complete an adventure, we will sign them with the location and/or activity that we did and the date.

The fun part about using the letters is that people often ask us why we are holding them up.  By nature, Alan is an introvert and fairly quiet.  As he shares his passion for our travels and our relationship with others,  I have watched him change.  I am always surprised by peoples interest.  Both young and older people approach us, married or single.  Once people catch on to our antics, they often offer additional ideas for the area that we are exploring!  In turn, if we find other traveler’s along the way, we have been able to offer suggestions for great places to explore.

What other ways could you think of to document the letter you are currently working on?

 

 

The Journalers Journey includes 30 lessons, which allow you to grow your writing skills.  When you are stuck for a way to find words, look for the above symbol for prompts. Writing tools may also be found by filtering under the “ABC Documents” category, the “Journaler’s Journey” category or by clicking on the tag “writing”.

What is Journaling?

A journal is simply a record, that includes reflections, emotions, and musings of your daily activities. It is a way to share the stories which exist in your everyday life.  It does not need to be a written document.

It is different from a diary in that it does not need to be chronological.  It is also  different from the writing done in school,  there are no rules, no right or wrong.  A journal is simply a collection of personal thoughts and observations. Sharing the contents or keeping them completely private, is up to you.

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