Advice for my friend who's going on an adventure and starting a blog.. he wanted thoughts.. careful when you ask me for thoughts.. ;)

February Photo Adventure
Originally uploaded by maplemusketeer

Write something in a journal every day. Doesn't matter if it's long, short, detailed, or superficial. Put it in there.

Write about watching a bird on a branch. Write about the way the path goes down the valley past a house that's who knows how old. Write about what you had for breakfast and what you hope for the day. You'll find that there are certain things you write about more than others. That's totally ok! You'll find your voice and what you see and what you think of. Maybe it's descriptive to the scene.. the way the wind rustles sheaves of wheat or paint peeling above the fruit stand on the street curb. Maybe it's musings of a more abstract nature of how so many people's and cultures have interacted in such a small area for so long, and the differences you see between growing up on the west coast of Canada vs there.

You take with you the sum of your experiences, you see with your eyes, hear with your ears, you smell and taste, and experience what comes across your path. Encounter it, and enjoy it.

And write. Write as if you never had to share it with anyone. Write for yourself alone. Write knowing that you can throw out what you say.. and then look over it.. and post what you'd like to.

Write sober, write tipsy, write drowsy. Even if you don't use it all right now, or share it all right now.. perhaps one day you'll look back with perspective and glean kernels from it you never saw or valued when you wrote it.

Plus one day your kids can find it in your old stuff, or your grandkids in the really old stuff, and they'll laugh and chortle and be taken away to this far away land and this distant adventure... and it'll be good.