The Zen of Journaling

I love to journal while on the road. I’m writing a short essay on the value of journaling. This is my first draft. I’d enjoy any suggestions on how to make this shorter, yet more effective in inspiring travelers to put pen to paper in a journal:

Travel can make you a poet. Travel can be spiritual. By venturing far from home and looking back, you can better understand home. Traveling challenges truths you assumed were self-evident and God-given. It rearranges your cultural furniture. By traveling, you learn about yourself.

But without capturing your thoughts on paper, the lessons of travel are like shooting stars you just missed…and butterflies you thought you saw.

Your journey is a facet of your broader life. Journaling thoughtfully relates your travel experiences to your life in general. It brings meaning to eurekas that might otherwise have eluded you. Collecting intimate details on the road and then distilling them into your travel journal sharpens your ability to observe and builds a souvenir you’ll cherish for a lifetime.

Enjoy the physical act of putting pen to paper in order to capture then organize the thoughts and experiences that wash ashore with each day of your trip.

If your life is a canvas, travels bring new color. And journaling is like a painter standing back every once in a while to both understand and enjoy the art as it unfolds.

The discipline of journaling as you go is critical. Capturing feelings and intimate details is like enjoying a good espresso — it’s only right when still hot and steamy.

My wish for you: happy travels and — with the help of your journal — both meaningful experiences and vivid memories.

Comments

35 Replies to “The Zen of Journaling”

  1. I have enjoy extensive travel, and have written a lot about it, but just for fun, not to make money. At my age it would not be worth the effort. What follows is what I call “Writing Gems.” At least to me they are “Gems” and I have thousands of Gems, Snippets, and Tidbits, and a few books. ===== The eye can see, and The heart can love, What the word cannot describe. ===== Our vacation is not a destination, it’s the Journey. Turn here, explore there, relax and enjoy. ====== A picture is worth a thousand words. A visit is worth a thousand pictures. The video is priceless. ====== Your spirit of adventure will be modified by your gumption for walking. You must demand some reasonable association between effort and excitement. ====== It’s amazing how many ridiculous, stupid, ignorant, inefficient, obnoxious people you will meet, when you are in a bad mood. ===== And Rick, did you ever get a chance to scan the book I gave you at the LA Times Travel Show? It was a gift, not for sale.

  2. My favorite travel writing is by people who write about what they do, the people they meet, the conversations they have. They do not stop to reflect on the meaning of it all or make grand efforts to be poetic or philosophical. That goes for journal writing as well. I recently came across a journal I wrote on my first trip to Europe (in 1976!). I can’t believe how boring it was. It brought back some great memories, but also how tired I was, how thirsty, how I was worried about every penny I spent. Was I really that miserable? That’s not how I remember it. Maybe it’s like taking photos — the more time you spend trying to preserve the memories, the less time you spend having experiences. I like my imperfect memories more than having an accurate record of my travels.

  3. I found that my little notebook that Rick recommends using to jot down phone numbers, ideas, to-do lists and any useful info during my travels serves as a journal in it’s own way. ………..Discovered that when I came across a notebook at home after a few months and the memories it brought back……………. An unintended but very enjoyable journal bringing back happy memories and images of my trip.

  4. I envy enveryone who has the patience, dedication and discipline to sit and actually pen to paper write a journal of their experience as it occurs and organize it after. My mind whizzes too fast and I loose interest in paper and pen and put it down except to maybe jot a note about a place or person. So what I find works for me is that I send an email every evening to all my friends at home outlining what we did that day and make it almost conversational, you know like you are actually speaking to each person you are writing to. I might say “Dear God Patti and Mike they make the barristers call the Judges ‘My Lord’ over here in England can you imagine what that would do to Judge X’s ego if we had to do that” I am then forced to remember all the funny things that happened or the exciting new discoveries I have made to make it exciting and funny so my reader becomes as engaged as I was at the time. When my son would travel with me I would interject stories about what he was doing and how it affected me or the trip or group and some of the stuff was hilarious some was a catharsis so I would not kill him and dump the body. I don’t plan and organize my email thoughts I just let them go, well maybe organize as I do consciously make decisions what to add or leave out. When I am finished with my trip my 100 or so readers at home know all about the trip, the humorous times, the God why did I do that times, what my son did that made me laugh or aggravated me and more important about the places we visited and the history of it. I send a copy to myself and slip it in with the photos I take.

  5. I would highly recommend reading parts of the jounaling of John Wesley, Lewis & Clark, and others just to get an overview of the art form. Not only are they entertaining, but they have preserved historical information which otherwise would have slipped into oblivion. Almost all of them are in the public domain (Gutenburg project) so I print some out and take them on airplanes to read instead of another detective novel.

  6. I have just finished a book I wrote about Air Force travels in Vietnam, Thailand, and throughout Europe – I had kept a journal during those years, and had not viewed those pages is more than 25 years – Those memories not only came back alive, but have now become a new book. Whenever I travel, I HAVE to make pictures. Unlike KathyM, the act of photographing a thing helps me to SEE it better. Now in the age of digital cameras (and I like a good digital video camcorder which does video and stills) the act of making pictures and also recording sounds too (bells ringing, traffic, people talking, etc) help me relive the travel experiences again, as well as plan the next trip. Emailing is great too. Establish a blog, also – that way you can always write to it and you can add pictures too and then send it all back home whenever you can get wifi. Best of all, it helps you enjoy Rick’s shows even better because you try to see how he and his fine crew do their magic. John.

  7. I think writing in a travel journal, each day, is important. A person traveling in Europe for several days will not remember the unique experiences, after a few days. I recommend writing in a big journal book. Carry it everywhere, and write in it immediately, at the time of an experience. When I wrote notes in a little notebook, in an airplane, with the intention of copying it into my journal that evening in a hotel room, that did not happen : that night I did not have enough time to write it all. And, I recommend carrying a small tape recorder (or digital recorder) for dictation, in Europe. I can talk faster than I can write. If I try to write it all, I will not remember what I wanted to say, long enough to write it. After returning home, listen to the talking on the recording, and transcribe it onto paper, using a computer keyboard. And a recording can capture the sound of European people talking, in English, and in their languages. And the sound of the speech of some people in England is beautiful ! It is worth recording, for future entertainment. I put my travel journals in my permanent library at home, with the goeography and history books, and my big tall scrapbooks of photographs from Europe. A travel journal does not need to be as well written as a book of travel essays written by Paul Thereoux.

  8. I think John M misunderstood what I was saying and I totally agree Rick with what he is saying about photos and maybe you could expand this topic to include photojournaling which we all seem to do. I take about 3-5 thousand photos per trip (trips are 2-3 weeks) and yes I agree with John that IS the best way to remember everything in specific clarity but I was only writing about journaling as that was the topic. But on the whole one picture is worth a thousand memories.

  9. Rick, When I was writing for my ordination boards in the Methodist Church I travelled to Oxford, England for a theology course. I took my journal with me. I found myself inspired in my writing. I wrote in pubs, I wrote in the church yard of St. Mary’s University Church and many other places around Oxford. My mind felt clear and my writing was better than at home. Travel is a writers best friend.

  10. I bought Rick’s moleskin notebook years ago with the special long lasting paper and never used….after reading these inspiring posts it will be packed for my next trip……and filled in every day with interesting stories…..we all have great nuggets of stories that happen during our travels….sometimes it is the missed train that makes the best story………..

  11. Rick, your article has great content. I like the ‘pen to paper’ emphasis – a lost art! Now, inspire us further by giving us ‘action items’ or ‘to do’ suggestions in your article, i.e.; taking a local bus to a small village makes an amusing story; write from the perspective of the castle, horse, or statue; get a stamp from the border agent on your stationery; draw a sketch of something simple; tear out foreign words from travel advertisements; buy local postage stamps – they are small pieces of art. Travel always brings out my creativity. Keep the inspiration coming.

  12. I keep a small lined spiral notebook on every trip and record places, times, transportation, prices, menus, names, etc. A few events/incidents are recorded in complete sentences, but usually keywords can convey the sense and allow me to recall details later. That means that I’m not spending a lot of time writing. The full journal takes shape in the months following the trip as I create my record, sharing with my husband, adding his reflections (and corrections). I realize that I lose some of the immediacy of the email or the fuller journal entry, but the tradeoff is that I have more time to devote to the travel experience.

  13. Details captured on paper stimulate colorful, evocative memories. Distance and elapsed time can change one’s perception of a particular moment. Memories of a journey delightfully disrupt our dreary daily routines. Obviously jet lag and insomnia have resulted in hilarious, crazy alliterations in my journal :<)!! Experiencing the diversity and variety of other cultures expands a person's inner universe, hopefully resulting in external tolerance and empathy. I think travelers exist either as intuitive or analytical..the analytical being more prone to journaling perhaps?

  14. Traveling challenges truths you assumed were self-evident and God-given. I’d drop “God-given”. Maybe use “inherent” instead — that’s what came to mind before my eyes made it down to the next line to finish the sentence, plus it keeps the essay a little more universal. I think the second-to-last line about writing *while* traveling is pretty important. If you really try you can remember every little detail, even months later, but the context isn’t there, nor is the humor or anything particularly human.

  15. Humberd is the Professor Emeritus of this board. I love his writing. Rick he is right up there with any travel writer. Back to topic…. I bought my wife a travel journal last year and we are just breaking it in now. It’s amazing how YOU change over the course of a few months or years of travel.

  16. fantastic that with all your expertise you willingly subject your work to public opinion…well here goes…I say drop the first three sentences and start with sentence four “Travelling challenges…” and I must commend your keen judgment in excluding (from a previous article) the phrase “You must die!, You must die!”…you really know how to scrub a script…many thanks

  17. Thanks for more of your pratical advice that includes the rationale that then helps us take the ideas to heart. My wife and I have a team approach. She journals. I photograph and record sound clips. Last few trips we have started to link each to a Google Picasa maps. Some neat new GPS photo tagging devices are just out. Obvious added benefit is that we can mark and remember exactly [within feet] the rock where the mountain goat came to lunch or Paul stood in Ephasus or we landed after rowing to Isola San Giulio or —on and on—

  18. Regarding “shorter”, tis the curse of the writer. A friend who teaches various English and American literature classes at the university level once told me that Hemingway would rewrite something 17 times. I have several hundred essays floating around and am always revising things, even years later. Much harder to write short, terse, verse than to ramble on and put people to sleep before bedtime.

  19. Hi Rick… You asked for an edit, so I took a crack at it…. Sharon Travel can reveal your inner poet. Travel can be spiritual. By venturing far from home, you can better understand home. Travel challenges truths you assumed were self-evident. It rearranges your cultural furniture. By traveling, you learn about yourself. But without capturing your thoughts, the lessons of travel are like shooting stars you just missed…and butterflies you thought you saw. Thoughtful journaling relates your travel experiences to the other facets of your life. Collecting intimate details on the road, and then distilling them into your travel journal, is the catalyst for eureka moments that might otherwise have eluded you. It sharpens your ability to observe and builds a souvenir you’ll cherish for a lifetime. Enjoy the physical act of putting pen to paper. It captures, then organizes, the thoughts and experiences that wash ashore each day of your trip. Life is a canvas and your travels bring new color, painted and preserved with your journal. As you journal, you step back, understanding and enjoying the art as it unfolds. Journaling is most rewarding when the moment is fresh. Capturing feelings and intimate details is like enjoying a good espresso — it’s only right when still hot and steamy. My wish for you: happy travels and — with the help of your journal — both meaningful experiences and vivid memories.

  20. Fred in Atlanta, Can I assume you have visited my Web Site? Travel-Tidbits.com == I never did keep a Journal as we traveled. Like junelee, my Travel Memory is unbelievable, otherwise, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast. Sweetie noted the odometer, and her favorites, but most of what I wrote is from my travel memory. For example, we spent one night in Zagreb, Yugo, in ‘85 and another in ‘89, and I bet I could sketch a useful map of the city. Since my travel stopped when my Sweetie got ill, I have never owned a Digital camera. But it seems to me that people don’t take the care they should, they just snap anything, and throw most of it away. But without care, even what is kept is not always the best. Many times I have been thanked for suggesting “step over here, you will like it better.” Some people like the sound of a wax record better than a DVD, and I like the look of a film photo best. Otherwise how would the best photo ever taken of London, ever, be on my Web Site? == The most amazing Travel Journal I have ever read is on my Web Site, written in 1931, in verse, by our friend Eleanor who died a dozen years ago, at age 101. A sample of the 24 chapters: — on her way home, you can see she was homesick — August 8 – 14, 1931 == ON BOARD THE AQUITANIA == Sailing east the sky was bright — The waves danced all day long in light — Gay clothes made decks a lovely sigh — Each dinner hour looked like a feast. — But my depression never ceased — Sailing east. === Sailing west the sky is gray — The clouds pile higher all the day — But I have those, not far away — With whom to talk, with whom to jest — And know the homeward road is best — Sailing west!

  21. I just wanted to take a moment to say how much I enjoy reading this blog, Rick, and the comments on it, Jim Humberd, Sharon, Fred in Atlanta, KathyM, et al. I missed the last week or two because I’be been away, traveling! My sweetie and I were honeymooning in Hawaii, through-the-back-door style. We spent two nights in the Kona Hotel on the Big Island, which I heartily recommend, only $35/night. It was built around 1926 by a Japanese couple that moved to Hawaii ~1898. For all that time they saved their money for their “dream hotel” while raising four boys. The hotel is still in the same family today and has the aroma of old wood, which some might find disagreeable, but reminds me of my grandmother, Mima’s, house. She was a second mother to me. She lived directly next door and would feed my sister and I breakfast and put us on the school bus. We’d get off there as well and eat supper with her. Our mother would generally come home shortly after the dishes were cleared, we’d then go home, study, sleep, get up and do it again. Some of my favorite memories of Mima are of her cooking me oatmeal on her woodstove. I remember being a boy and just marveling at her ability to cook oatmeal on a woodstove, just seemed so challenging and complicated to me. Now that I’m older (27 as of last Wednesday) I laugh when I think of it! Oatmeal is easy and I’m sure she just set it on the stove and kept an eye on it. Unfortunately, she died this past December 23rd. On the other hand, I was blessed to have her as long as I did, she was 91, her mind was as sharp as a tack to the bitter end, and I had the honor of holding her hand when she passed. Anyway, when I walked into the Kona Hotel it felt very welcoming, partly like coming home. We had a corner room with an ocean view. No A/C, we opened the windows for a cross breeze. There was an antique dresser and small table.

  22. On the shelf under the table was a pile of magazines, at the top was a Reader’s Digest. It reminded me of Mima’s place even more, I used to read her Reader’s Digests when I was kid. I just assume that this one was an old issue as well, it just seemed so fitting with the rest of the hotel, but the headline caught my eye and I checked the date – January 2008! It seemed very fitting, old, but new, at the same time. After two nights in the Kona Hotel we explored Volcanoes National Park, and then spend the night at the Holo Holo In in Volcano. Our favorite part of the Nat’l Park was a 4-mile hike we took across a volcanic crater and then looping back through the jungle. The crater was a lava lake in the 1950s. Hiking acrossed it, on the NPS designated trail, was like crossing a frozen pond. A flat surface of black basalt with steam rising up from cracks hinting at what was below. The Holo Holo In was great and I recommend it as well, although it was a little pricier at $55.50/night. Holo means to “wander” in native Hawaiian and when words are repeated that adds emphasize, like how we might say “quick, quick.” The “In,” really a very nice hostel with excellent private accomodations, was established by a former Japanese backpacker that traveled the world for years before settling down in Hawaii as an electrician, and opening a hostel! For our last night on the Big Island we moved back to the Kona Coast, to Hotel Manago in Captain Cook, another phenomenol place. This hotel was the most lively of all the places we stayed on the Big Island. It also was built around 1926/7 by Japanese emmigrants and is still in the family, run by a grandson. This establishment has a restaurant on the ground floor that serves an exceptional pork chop.

  23. It seemed very popular with the locals, at a table near us there were two mothers with two little girls that ordered a pork chop to go in addition to their meals! Anyway, this whole story of going to Hawaii was a tangent that I got off on. What I intend to say when I started this comment was: 1- Thanks Rick for lobbying Congress for more money for developmental aid. 2- My first visit to France! My first visit to France was my first time outside of North America, I didn’t speak a work of French, and I was there for the fall of Baghdad, but that is getting the cart before the horse. My first impression was one of wonder. It was the first week of April, I left Maine in a snow storm, and I awoke in Nice, France! It just seemed so magically, in part because my family always traveled by van and camper when I was a kid. We went all over the country over the course of a few years in a series of 3 week vacations. So to fall asleep somewhere over Nova Scotia and awake in France seemed other worldly. I mean, to get France, that’s got to be a two or three week journey, or so it seemed to my internal travel speedometer/odometer calibrated to RV-style travel. I remember being shocked as we rode the bus from the airport to downtown, there were palm trees along the road! I had never seen palm trees in my life, didn’t know they were in France, and the day before I had been walking through a snowstorm in Maine, did I mention that? It rocked my world! That was the start, that was the first out of the country without my parents (and the other times had only been driving across Canada in the van and walking into Mexico from Texas twice for a collective 60 minutes). Remember the adventure puts a smile on my face…

  24. There’s a conversation going on on the Helpline about what travel means to you…I just finished posting and then came to the blog and read this. You’re first 3 paragraphs are very appropriate for this subject. I was just thinking how clumsy I am with my writing, and there you are with you’re eloquent writing! On our last trip we took turns writing in our journal (including my 13 year old). We found that none of us really wanted to do it daily, but doing it once every 3 days was just right. There will be 5 of us on our trip this spring and I think we’ll do our journal this way again. Its fun to have different perspectives of our adventures catalogued.

  25. No slam intended to the man who shoots several thousand pictures on his trips- because photo records are very valuable. But a photograph cannot capture what you were thinking or feeling when you shot that image- it most assuredly will trigger memories of that moment- but couple that image with the description of the smell and taste of pappardele con cinghiale a pomodoro, and wow, that can almost sit you back down in that restaurant! My wife insists, no matter how many grappas I had to digest my meal, that I write in my journal every evening before going to sleep. On occasion, my cursive begins wavering, getting smaller, finished by a long stroke across the page… and when I review my journal, I am reminded of how tasty (and how many) limoncellos I had before leaving that restaurant.

  26. I’ve never journaled but plan to on my European vacation in May. I do a little “Scrapbooking” and the journal will help when I return with hundreds of pictures. I also plan to jot down my thoughts and memories of this, my husband’s first trip abroad! THAT will be a book in itself!

  27. My journals begin with a standard school ruled composition book, a gluestick and tape. I paste or tape all the scrap pieces of paper that accrue along the way, beginning with the boarding passes and a postcard from my departure airport. Each day as I write about what I see and think, I tape in restaurant receipts (not as much fun these days when everything is computer-printed), museum passes, local maps, postcards and my hotel’s brochure. I fold and stuff the larger items in, all the while writing around the margins and onto adjoining pages. It’s essential that the composition book have stitched binding or else the spine would eventually burst. Bu the end of my trip I have a bulging journal of my memories. It adds to the collection from previous trips and goes on my bookshelf.

  28. A handwritten journal benefits you, but not your friends and family left at home while you travel. Instead of journaling, I write a travel blog (usually an entry or two each day) during a trip. I use a Palm PDA with Wi-Fi capability, find a Wi-Fi “hot spot”, and post to the blog via e-mail using Blogger (aka Blogspot). Now I can post photos this way, too. Better yet, using a mailing list set up in “Google Groups”, I can send these “posts” from the road to my friends and family automatically by e-mail whenever I make new entry to the blog. They love it!

  29. A handwritten journal benefits you, but not your friends and family left at home while you travel. Instead of journaling, I write a travel blog (usually an entry or two each day) during a trip. I use a Palm PDA with Wi-Fi capability, find a Wi-Fi “hot spot”, and post to the blog via e-mail using Blogger (aka Blogspot). Now I can post photos this way, too. Better yet, using a mailing list set up in “Google Groups”, I can send these “posts” from the road to my friends and family automatically by e-mail whenever I make new entry to the blog. They love it!

  30. A handwritten journal benefits you, but not your friends and family left at home while you travel. Instead of journaling, I write a travel blog (usually an entry or two each day) during a trip. I use a Palm PDA with Wi-Fi capability, find a Wi-Fi “hot spot”, and post to the blog via e-mail using Blogger (aka Blogspot). Now I can post photos this way, too. Better yet, using a mailing list set up in “Google Groups”, I can send these “posts” from the road to my friends and family automatically by e-mail whenever I make new entry to the blog. They love it!

  31. I am planning a 2 week trip to Paris this summer. We’ve rented an apt. and I plan to explore, observe, photo & write – maybe blog. I am copying this entry by Rick as my first journal entry. Who says my journal can’t start before I actually set foot in Paris?

  32. Rick, I always love reading your thoughts. So often it seems what you write is exactly what I am thinking! Thanks for sharing, it’s always nice to know there are others out their with similar views! I also love Melissa comment because I just printed off Rick’s words and am going to copy it into my own journal as well!

  33. I’ve been studying in Germany and Austria since February. I have a Moleskine journal, that I really should update more than I do, but I have enjoyed using it. I bought the kind without lines, and I glue ticket stubs, pictures, Lufthansa salt & pepper packets, business cards, postcards, fancy napkins, recipes, notes from people, or funny earplug diagrams inside. I write notes around these items to explain them. It’s really easy to bring a glue stick or two along, and I’d recommend it to other people. It can really help you get started with your journaling, and it’s a great way to keep all small memories–without feeling like a packrat!

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