Beyond You...

One can name a few popular journal entries that have marked ordinary peoples lives then and have very strong impact on people in the present. One of the famous daily accounts was that of Anne Frank, who has shown the world how the human spirit can not be broken easily in times of extreme hardships. Personally, Anne Frank's diary is a reminder to all that race should never be taken against anyone at anytime.

Another series of accounts through letters were made by Ernest Hemingway. Unlike several romance novels written from a point of view of a woman, the book that included accounts and pictures of Hemingway's recuperating during the war was enough to melt a woman's heart. Of course he looked dashing and was described as being good-natured and polite. The book took me 2 reads to fully picture Hemingway at a different light.

Last September, remnants of a journal that survived entering the Earth's atmosophere was presented in an Israeli Museum. The pieces of the diary was found in a field in Palestine, Texas. The journal was owned by the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, one of NASA's Columbia crew. Restoration of the said journal started in 1993, most pages remain unreadable and burnt in the edges. The readable parts that had accounts of life in space were displayed while the pages containing personal entries have been given to his wife.

These are 3 of my favorite journal/diary keeping stories that bring out the value of jotting down notes and personal musings. Though for the ones who have written the journals and entries touching others beyond their lives was never realized until after their deaths.

I close with a quote from Carol Shields,

"There are chapters in every life which are seldom read and certainly not aloud."

Personal Journey, Pen to Paper

One of my favorite reads are inspiring biographies or accounts of people who made use of their gifts to reach their full potential-a feat not most of us would reach because of duplication...Seeing a famous (usually dead) person's life word per word from a biographer's account is time consuming that's why reading these is reserved for vacation leaves and stormy weather (which is rare in this region-ha!). My work requires me to face the computer an average of 8-9 hours a day which would make hardbound biography reading very tedious.

So I've turned to searching out and answering the un-spoken invitation to witness a life by visiting blog sites that have the same effect on me as a dead person's saga of personal travails and triumphs. One of the topics that carve a deep impression in my heart would be animal and pet blogs. Living in a region in Asia that is in it's first baby steps when it comes to animal rights, exotic and breed-rich animals recorded and studied at real-time spells fascinating read for me...

I am a regular browser of the Animal Planet website the internal links to Groomer Has It and A Season With Lions are the A.P. blogs I do love reading through.

Checking out what had happened with the on-line lionine friend, Dave Salmoni, I re-read an excerpt in a July 24th entry... “My purpose of turning this personal journey of mine into a television project was for me to bring other people along with me. To allow the people at home, who may not have the same opportunity in their own life to live with lions, to come along with me. This is the same purpose of writing this journal.”

This quote is so powerful that it moves a reader to accept the gift of experience and adventure through Dave Salmoni's mind and eyes. This is the basic and most elementary in journal writing be it on-line or pen to paper.

Journal writing benefits the writer by providing the proper place to talk deeply about things that rock their world. With no promise to convert but rather to share the bursting passion a single conversation can never cover. Putting myself in D. Salmoni's shoes, an e-journal is the best way to beat the shadow of loneliness. Considering that spending everyday for a season in the land of the jungle king is a privilege given only to a person who dares do what most of us wouldn't have enough courage and boldness to do so.

Considering every life is an adventure on it's own, I do believe that there are pieces of ourselves that are impossible to share all in one go. Being my parent's child and there were some aspects that set your brain on denial- in my mind (then) my parents will not deviate from the Ingalls' or Brady's (was I disappointed) ...As a mother of 3, I do accept that not all who I am in thought, creed or principle may agree with them just yet. Keeping a journal which I hope to pass on when I die, not necessarily to be the “Dummy's” guide book on anything, but as a frank and objective account of how I went through my life and how I survived rough waters and drowned in knee-high personal 'floods'.

La Moleskine

They say, the things you've got in your bag says a lot about a person. Ever since I could remember, the smell of new notebook paper is like a bouquet of fresh flowers in my bag. I could remember being reluctant having to write on the pristine pages and mix ink scent with that of substance 20 paper. I would gladly lag around a knapsack with my pens, book and a sheaf of bounded paper or the latest acquisition (READ: new notebook).

Others have the penchant for acquiring gems, watches or even a wish list for signature shoes or bags...my wish list comes in the form of the Moleskine Notebooks. I admit, being addicted to jotting down things down in notebooks or any piece of paper lying around...Now, a Moleskine is THE notebook that I envision myself using for thoughts to share to my posterity. Having THE notebook handy for some light bulb scenarios are the best way to practice journal prompts.

They say the Moleskine is the only notebook with a cult following, don't let your jaw drop too much. Out of billions of humans, I know I am not the only one liking the scent of paper and choose the surface best for my pen with fingertips to the paper. And as history would tell, THE notebook is the one preferred by several of the last centuries greatest and artistic minds. The arts and sciences have never thought the masterpieces or discoveries and studis were roughly done with the aid of a Moleskine. Van Gogh, Picasso did sketches and rough images on their masterpieces aside from notations about their thoughts during those times. Ornithologist and naturalist James P. Chapin had taken a Moleskine to Congo in Africa when it was possible to get there just by sea. Journal writing for Ernest Hemingway resulted to several literary outlines and entries that made print.

To my thinking, I am not destined to be world renowned nor my name known in the 4 corners of the world. I don't even have a cache of pearls of wisdom or even great discoveries for humankind to impress my grand children with. But for sure when my Moleskine gets here, it is designated to witness my life which sink or swim, I'd like my posterity to enjoy while taking all I've noted on it.

A notebook or several in a bag tells of a person that sees the world in it's interesting state and has a tendency to dream. Noting those who did have notebooks as companions in their journey, I could say I'm in good company.