7 Tips for Keeping a Travel Journal

Happy Summer! It's finally here!I hope you have some fun things planned this summer. We talk a lot about the importance of taking pictures to visually capture our memories but it is equally as important to give those pictures meaning through journaling. Here are some great tips from a guest writer Mari McCarthy on keeping a travel journal.

Are you traveling this summer? Whether it's a weekend getaway to the mountains or a month by the shore or a dream excursion in the South Seas, journaling your adventure is a sure way to make its pleasures last.

Have you ever had the feeling that too many things are happening, and you're not as alive to every one of them as you would like to be? We want to enjoy every drop of our vacations, but the time goes by so quickly. Experiences tend to get jumbled in memory.

Even in the moment, it can be hard to be 100% 'present,' taking everything in with clarity and proper mental organization. Most of the time, we return home from a trip with a vague sense of having enjoyed ourselves but we seldom pause to specify what, exactly, was impressive or fun.

You worked long hours to afford your vacation; don't let it slip past you into oblivion. Journal your journeys and you'll find that not only do you end up with a record for the ages but you also enhance your daily appreciation of the experience as it's happening.

A few tips for your travel journal:

1. Start writing in your dedicated travel journal at least a couple weeks before you depart. Note your plans, your emotions, fears, expectations.

2. The trip itself may afford many a moment for journaling, depending on whether you're driving or riding. If you're the one piloting the forward motion, write a line or two about your progress and the environment whenever you stop for a break. If you're riding, try journaling a few lines every hour on the hour.

3. Once you reach your destination, make journaling part of your settling in activities. Take a shower, order a drink, and tell your journal all about the new surroundings.

4. We tend to be such creatures of habit that we'll quickly identify routines that we prefer even in a brand new place. As you enjoy your holidays, find that perfect moment in each day to reflect on your experiences in your journal.

5. Wherever you go, collect mementos that might be pasted into your journal. Bits of nature, paper, photos, postcards, tickets, ribbons, buttons... you'll develop a keen eye for these small reminders.

6. When it's almost time to go home, devote a special journaling session to listing highlights of your trip. Ask yourself questions as if you were being interviewed: What did you enjoy the most? What was beautiful, awesome, fun, strange? What was difficult or distasteful? How are you feeling emotionally, spiritually?

7. As soon as you can after returning home, make a final entry in your travel journal, and include your present thoughts about the vacation as well as how you are feeling now that you're back to everyday life.

It's obvious that these practices will produce a deepened appreciation for travels as they unfold and a book of memories that will serve you for a lifetime. In light of these facts, journaling while journeying is a no-brainer!


By Mari L. McCarthy - The Journaling Therapy Specialist, founder of Journaling for the Health of It™. Mari offers counseling and encouragement to writers through her many online journaling resources as well as private consultations. Please see http://www.createwritenow.com/journaling/ for further information. Mari's latest publication is titled, Start Journaling and Change Your Life in Seven Days. Please visithttp://www.createwritenow.com/start-journaling-challenge-free-samples/ and download a free sample chapter.

When it comes to caring for your photos, the first thing that might pop into your mind is the need to keep them safe.  Or if you're feeling overwhelmed by piles, then your first thought might be to gain control of the mess.  ;-)

Both of those considerations are very important, but there's one more that you may not think about.  And yet, that one other factor could be the difference between your photo collection being considered a treasured heirloom or being simply disregarded as a heap of stuff.

So what is it that could have such a drastic impact on the value of your photo collection?  Simply put, it's the memories that go along with pictures!  Taking the time to journal the details of the people, places and events surrounding the images is what will create a collection to be treasured.

Not convinced?

Have a look at this beautiful poem by Pam Harazim of East Hampton, Connecticut


Strangers in The Box

Come, look with me inside this drawer,
In this box I've often seen,
At the pictures, black and white,
Faces proud, still, and serene.

I wish I knew the people,
These strangers in the box,
Their names and all their memories,
Are lost among my socks.

I wonder what their lives were like, 
How did they spend their days? 
What about their special times?
I'll never know their ways.

If only someone had taken time,
To tell who, what, where and when,
These faces of my heritage,
Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate,
Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories,
Someday to be passed away?

Take time to save your stories,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours,
Could be strangers in the box.

That's something to think about, isn't it?  But how do you get started capturing your memories?

• Although we DON'T recommend it, you could write directly on the back of your photographs.  If you decide to go this route, then you need to do this very carefully, with photo safe materials.  (A word of warning:  Never write on the back of a photograph with a ballpoint pen!) 
   
• You could keep a journal to record your family's growth and memories along the way and then store the journal with your photographs.  It's a start, because at least there will be some details, but it doesn't really allow you to match specific pictures with documentation.
   
• Scrapbooking is another option.   You would be able to journal directly on your album pages right alongside of your photographs, which would certainly enable you to record the memories that go along with specific photographs. Or considerdigital scrapbooking if you aren't into the actual scrapbooking process.
   
• Lastly, consider  acid-free, lignin-free photo envelopes where you can sort your photos and capture the memories that went along with them.

That sounds like a simple way to make sure that your photo collection can be meaningful--and treasured, doesn't it?

While going through my photographs one day, I discovered this one of my kids taken eight years ago at one of our families' favorite places of all time. I just love this photograph so I decided to turn it into a 16 x 20 canvas! There are many companies you can get these through, I happened to use my local Staples and got this print for $29.99!