I think that most people see a journal as a wonderful handwritten log of events and thoughts.  I guess that works for some people.  But the thing to remember is a book can hold so much more than words.  More than drawings even.   Grab your tape and glue and fill the thing up!

Try a couple of pages of movie tickets to chronicle the films you’ve seen

I have a thing for feathers.  There are always one or two stuck in the pages somewhere

Wrist bands, wine labels, snapshots, peices of maps, a dab of the perfect color paint for your bedroom,  A journal can hold it all.

From time to time I scour Ebay for journals that I buy and read (if they are legible)  I have one from the late 19th century that has a recipe for lemon cake I am trying to decipher and in the middle of the book are two locks of hair, delicately spiraled and pinned to the pages.  I’m afraid that the journal was kept with a pencil and it is much faded now, so I have no idea who the hair belonged to or what its significance is to the journaler.  Actually most people are grossed out by it, but I am facsinated by this tangible link to a life or lives from a century ago.