The magic notebook...

Writing is an important part of my life, and has been since I first learned to read and write. I remember holding those fat pencils and laboring over my letters on the yellow paper of first grade. Due to my propensity for mistakes, and the lack of an eraser on the fat pencil, there were often wet holes rubbed in the paper in a misguided effort to hide my errors.

Last week, Barbara O'Neal talked about notebooks in her Writer Unboxed post on the importance of having a private writing practice. It brought up memories of the various journals I've had, and what's worked for me and what hasn't. On the right is a journal I bought from the old Abbey Press when I was in law school. I bought one for every member of the family, but I think I'm the only one who filled mine completely. At that time, I included quotes from things I was reading, as well as my thoughts about my life, the world, and a lot of things.

My first genuine journal

My very first journal, however, was a spiral-bound steno pad that I used as a journal the summer I was an exchange student in Costa Rica. A returned exchange student urged me to keep a journal, as she said it's so easy to forget things once you get home. She was right. When I read through it years later I was stunned by my 16-year-old perceptions, and the experiences that had completely escaped my memory.

The eight years between my Costa Rican adventures and the law school journal were filled with my senior year in high school, college, and my first year or so of law school. I don't think it ever occurred to me to keep a journal in those years - I was far too busy living them to keep that kind of record. It was in law school that the scream inside of me began to demand an outlet. And I started a journal.

The notebook on the left was given to me by a friend when I was lay-ordained. I met her at a Natalie Goldberg writing practice workshop. The notebook on the right I discovered in the gift shop at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

One journal was written in the form of letters to a friend, who suggested it as a way to deal with a devastating loss. Like Barbara O'Neal, I love the Moleskine notebooks, though I use many different kinds. For notes and writing practices on my novel, I use the sugarcane-based notebooks made for Staples, even though they no longer have the cute covers. My favorite was the one with the owls.

I've lost count of the number of notebooks I've filled with poetry. For years I kept telling myself I wasn't a poet. And I'm not, if you are looking for a Mary Oliver or David Whyte. On the other hand, I've written hundreds of poems in various notebooks. One of the workshops I attended with Natalie Goldberg was the haiku workshop she did with Clark Strand. I still write haiku when inspiration strikes. No matter the notebook, I find something magical in taking my pen in hand to fill the empty page with things that only I can write.

With the workshop coming up at the end of May, I'm already wondering what notebooks to take with me...