Go with your gut when it comes to a journal and you’ll be rewarded. Although Wong Yap’s shitty/good exercise began as a cerebral practice, the unintended result was that she better appreciated the positive things in her life. Likewise, food critic Tucker Shaw, who photographed everything he ate in 2004, said that he gained a new appreciation for the human connections elicited by food and mealtime: “I never expected to find so much to consider in my food, such as the meaning of the same bowl of oatmeal every morning.”
Giving oneself an assignment, like Shaw did, can produce wonderful results. Designer and illustrator Linda Zacks, documents her Brooklyn-based life in assorted books, many of which begin with a wisp of urban inspiration. Such as the Christmas trees on the curb one January, which struck her as sad relics of their so recent merry selves. She also loves “giving rebirth” to items that otherwise seem forgotten, such as a collection of old family photos of her grandmother in swimming suits, which Zacks wittily coupled with text from a Victoria’s Secret catalog.
Redefine your journal and you may find it to be a meditative or even rejuvenating destination as opposed to yet another item on your to-do list. Getting beyond the list is, in fact, the most valuable lesson journals have to offer; they force us to slow down and pay attention. As one lifelong journal-keeper told me, “A journal keeps your eyes wide as a child’s.”
Art: Christine Wong Yap
