HDT_Journ

By Ron Harton

Recently, I finished reading a new (2009) one-volume version of Henry David Thoreau’s Journal edited by Damion Searls and published by New York Review Books.

I had a wonderful time reading this edition because it includes much more of the context of the content as well as the more famous portions. I could really see Thoreau’s mind at work in this edition, better than the other versions I have read. This edition is one of the best 23 dollar purchases I have ever made.

I read its 667 pages straight through in just over two weeks. Inspired again and again by both Thoreau’s observations and his philosophical ideas. I underlined and marked passages as I read. I thought it might be fun to list out some of the things Thoreau wrote about in his journal that could serve as starting points for my own journaling. Sometimes it’s difficult to think of what to write about. Even Thoreau admits to that problem on occasion.

In the final analysis, though, Thoreau wrote because he loved life, he loved the wild natural world, he loved his friends and community, he loved his experiences in the world. He gives a simple descriptive definition of what his journal was to him: “A journal, a book that shall contain a record of all your joy, your ecstasy” (July 13, 1852).

As I read, I saw that Thoreau’s subjects could be generalized as a guide for any nature journal writer, regardless of place and time. Thoreau might say that all you ned to do is to observe nature all around you and write about what you see and hear, and smell--all that you experience. However, sometimes some of us might need a little more direction--something to quickly focus our minds and writing.

So, from the pages of Thoreau’s journal here are some tips for our own journal writing.

1.   Write every day. On July 6, 1840, Thoreau compares a journal to a beach where the tide brings in new shells and sand daily. Your journal will record the treasures that the day brings to your mind. Just as a beachcomber who misses a day walking on the beach misses seeing what the tide brought, a nature writer who doesn’t write every day misses what insights the day brings. The purpose is to write and to reflect, not to create a masterpiece. Thoreau said the journal itself is the work. “Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them” (September 7, 1851).

2.   Listen to your inner voice. Thoreau says that good writing depends on “obedience to conscience” (July 26, 1841). He says people should “be what we are” (February 3, 1841). His journals are full of reminders to himself to live in the moment and enjoy life now, not waiting to live sometime in the future. To do that we need to follow the intuitive voice guiding us from within and to write about where it leads us.

3.   Write, even if you’ve had a difficult day. Thoreau found that on days when he was exhausted from work, his writing was sharp and focused. He was too tired to write “the palaver” that destroys the coherence and power of the words that matter. On tired days he writes simply and directly, recording the observations he had made during the day and his thoughts about the day.

4.   Write about what you love. On May 6, 1854, Thoreau writes, “All that a man has to say or do that can possibly concern mankind, is in some shape or other, to tell the story of his love.” You don’t have to be an expert in a scientific field to keep a nature journal. The important thing is that you love life, you love the world around you, and you write out of that love. On November 16, 1850, Thoreau wrtes, “My journal should be a record of my love.”

5.   Write about nature as it relates to your life, or, to use Thoreau’s term: subjectively. A nature journal does not have to be a scientific journal. In fact, in Thoreau’s mind the most important aspect is how the observation connects to your own personal life. Thoreau writes, “The sum of what the writer of whatever class has to report is simply some human experience, whether he be poet, philosopher or man of science.”

6.   Give your journal a name. Thoreau said his might be called “Field Notes.” You could name your journal to make it more personally yours.Remember, you are not writing the journal to be objectively scientific. On July 16, 1851, Thoreau writes, “With all your science can you tell how it is and whence it is, that light comes into the soul?” Your journal is the story of how the light of nature illuminate your soul.

7.   Write about storms. Thoreau writes specifically about the look, feel, sound, and effects of storms that passed over his town and countryside: the snow, the clouds, the wind, the rain--the sights and smells of the drama. Make connections between the storms and your personal life. You are writing as a part of nature, describing how the storms connect to you.

8.   Write about rivers, creeks, canals and ponds. Describe what you see around the edges and floating along in the current or wind. Thoreau’s famous Walden Pond was just a short walk from town--no secluded wilderness tarn, yet it provided thousands of observations and became his symbol for an attitude toward all of life. How does the water you see (or the lack of it) symbolize key moments in your life? Do you have one water feature that you can write about over a long period of seasonal changes?

9.   Make lists and observations about the common plants you see growing around you every day. Even the most common plants--even those we consider weeds--have amazing structure and beauty for those who see. Record the days the flowers bloom and compare the dates from year to year. Write about what is growing, budding, blooming. growing, changing colors, dying as the year progresses.

10.   Write about the night. Thoreau took many night walks. Sometimes he even wrote by moonlight and observed how his night writing differed from his daylight writing. On June 11, 1851 he writes, “Last night, a beautiful summer night, not too warm, moon not quite full after two or three rainy days...New beings have usurped the air we breathe, rounding Nature, filling her crevices with sound.” Thoreau writes often about the sounds of the night: frogs and toads especially fascinated him.

11.   Write about nature books you are reading. Thoreau mentions many books in his journal. One book he especially liked was Charles Darwin’s, Voyage of a Naturalist Around the World. Thoreau never traveled around the world, or even very far from Concord, but he read widely and wrote about what he read and what he thought about what he read. He often spent days in the Cambridge library reading old nature books. He made text-to-self connections, sometimes recording quotations from books he read. What connections can you make between observations you read about and what you see in your own natural world? Take a trip to your library and explore the nature section.

12.   Write about nature close to home. Thoreau symbolically thought of himself as a traveller through he world of nature and ideas, but he knew he was no wilderness explorer or even a traveller in the traditional sense. On August 19, 1851, he writes, “As travellers go round the world and report natural objects and phenomena, so faithfully let another stay at home and report the phenomena of his own life,--catalogue stars, those thoughts whose orbits are as rarely calculated as comets.” What nature observations can you make around your home and neighborhood? How do these connect with what is happening in your personal life today?

13.   Write about the obscure, little things of life that few others may think to write about. Thoreau writes, “You may have the extraordinary if you will let me have the ordinary. Give me the obscure life.” You may live in the middle of a city or of a suburban tract. There may be no wilderness for miles away, yet nature is all around you. Write about the street trees, the plants in the sidewalk cracks, the clouds sailing overhead, the wind as it catches the leaves of the trees--all the small things that make up your naturescape--and make connections to your life, your philosophy of what meaning and purpose in life.

14.   Write about many subjects. Don’t limit yourself to any one area, like just plants or just birds. Be intuitive and go with what the day brings. On September 4, 1851, Thoreau wrote, “It is wise to write about many subjects, to try many themes.” It helps to make analogies between different areas and that helps you do the type of thinking that leads to insights, truths, about life. “There are innumerable avenues to a perception of the truth.”

15.   Write about your activities in nature. Thoreau enjoyed paddling and ice skating, and he writes extensively about both activities. These weren’t really sports for him, but they were basic methods of transportation. Many of the things that modern readers find idyllic or rustic in Thoreau are simply facts of daily life in that era. You can write about your sports activities: running, cycling, paddling, skating and what you see along the way. You can write about your commute and what you observe in your everyday routine.

16.   Write often throughout the day. Don’t save up your thoughts for one long writing time. You might carry a small notebook with you and write down observations as you go through the day, transcribing them later, or you might have several journals: some small notebooks to carry and a larger one or computer file to write more expansively.

17.   Write about the natural world that you observe while doing a variety of activities. Thoreau worked as a surveyor, and he made many observations while surveying. He maintained that having a variety of jobs to do was as good as traveling abroad. Having many experiences helps us to see ourselves in a truer light. When we write about nature from different work or life experiences--for example, what we see outside the window during a committee meeting, what we observe while taking the laundry to the laundromat, or the birds and insects around us on the patio at the coffee shop--they all help us to come at the truth of nature and the truth of ourselves from different perspectives. “To be able to see ourselves, not merely as others see us, but as we are, that service a variety of absorbing employments does us,” Thoreau writes.

18.   Include small drawings or photographs of what you observe. Thoreau occasionally included small drawings in his journal. For examples, in his study of bees in September 1852, he drew flight patterns of bees and in October 1855 he drew the sparkling patterns of the bright sun on the dark waters of a pond. Thoreau was not an artist, and the drawings are crude and simple, but his drawings add depth and an intimate feeling to his journal. Even though you may not be an artist, your occasional simple sketches, or your phone photos, added to your writing, will aid your observation and help you make connections to your life.

19.   Write about the same plant, animal or landscape feature several times in the same season. On December 4, 1856, Thoreau writes, “I often visited a particular plant four or five miles distant, half a dozen times within a fortnight...” He recorded the changes that he observed in the plant and for whatever else the world might offer him. In your journal, you might record the subtle changes of a single plant over a period of time and how its changes mirror other things that are happening in the natural world and in your personal world.

20.   Write about your moods and feelings first and then let your observations influence your mood. In a poignant passage on January 6, 1858, Thoreau writes about feeling what we might call depression, “Very little evidence of God or man did I see just then, and life, not as rich or as inviting an enterprise as it should be...” Then he watches a snowflake fall on his sleeve and begins to observe the pattern--the beauty and symmetry of it--and his mood changes: “Nature had not lost her pristine vigor yet, and why should man lose heart.” Try starting your journal with your mood or your personal situation. Then go out and observe nature during the course of your activities and later record how your attitude changes after a day of experiencing the world. Thoreau ends that day’s entry, “What a world we live in!”

Many other examples could be aded from the pages of Thoreau’s journal. A journal like Thoreau’s is so much more than nature observations. It is a record of a life lived in awareness of nature and in step with nature. It is a record of personal philosophy and feelings, of achievements and disappointments, of happiness and of anger, of activities and of people, of reading and of thinking--all illuminated and instructed by the natural world. It is the story of a life interbeing with nature. It is a rare treasure. Your journal can be, too.