What Twelve Years of Keeping a Journal Taught Me
There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version. Thanks for reading, and for the kind notes that keep arriving. The windswept part is hardly ever the hard part; consistency is. It took me twelve attempts to see the pattern.
A note on tools
You can get surprisingly far with a rail pass and some patience. I am still not sure I have it right, but it is closer. There is no single right way to approach keeping a journal, but some ways are kinder than others.
- Compare against last winter
- Leave room for unplanned mistakes
- Write down what you change
- Stop before you are tired
The setup
It is not glamorous, but it holds up. Nobody spoke much English, and somehow that made it easier. In January the light changes, and so does the work. A paper map invites conversations that a phone never does. Half of the work is deciding what to leave out.
Off-season towns are quieter, cheaper and far more truthful. We arrived after dark and only understood the view in the morning. It is effortless to overthink getting lost. It is harder to just start. I tested the overland version first. It did not last.
A few details
A phrasebook helps, but it is not the point. I wrote most of this on a hushed Monday morning. In June the light changes, and so does the work. The train was late, which turned out to be the best part of the day. The slow part is hardly ever the hard part; consistency is.
- Give learning a few words a full winter
- Keep a rail pass within reach
- Compare against last spring
- Keep a small backpack within reach
- Budget twice the time you expect