What's in my Journal?
By Jeannine Patané • February 2005

    Thoughout the years I’ve kept several journals and every once in awhile I’ll pull one out and read it, only to laugh at myself. I wrote this? It sounds awful! I need an editor. My writing style varies greatly. Each journal, each entry has a personality of its own that is built around its language and words of focus. Sometimes my attitude and emotions are overwhelmingly clear; sometimes I sound like a training manual full of technical words.
    I have recently been asked what I write in my journal, so I thought I’d share by forming a digestible list which is in no particular order. My current journal was started at the end of December 2004 and my style has developed less into story writing and more into “notes to self,” like a scrapbook of my mind. From these ideas or concepts, time will only tell what I pursue to expound upon.

1. Directions and maps. These pages are inserted so I can remove them when needed.
    It’s OK to get lost.
    Enjoy the things I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
    Learn something new in uncharted places. Immerse myself.
    Decide my rhythm and how I will manage and adjust it.
   
2. Recent dreams that were poignant and are telling me something.
    I listen to my dreams.
3. Brief dated notes on my trip to Southern New Mexico.
4. The pictograph photos Embree Hale gave me during our half-day conversation in the Hillsboro General Store and Country Café and a photo of Embree himself, taped in my journal.
5. Business cards of people I met and admission tickets of places I went.
6. Floor plan sketches of the flow of traffic/energy through my client’s estate.
7. Observations on how Car-Freshener® brilliantly markets their product.
8. Motivational notes and quotes.
9. Ideas for Handywoman’s Companion articles, or other story ideas.
10. Observations about men and women, which I’d like to turn into an article for Playboy Magazine someday.
11. Changes I want to make on www.alaskahandywoman.com or just ideas for the site.
12. Books that I’m interested in reading and musical artists' albums I like.
13. The Aloha Spirit by Serge King. It’s a little pink booklet that I keep in the back of my journal to remind me of the Aloha Philosophy.