Getting Started
Everyone journals differently. Some, like Bonney, choose to document what they feel. Others, like her mom, choose to stick to descriptions and facts. Whichever way you choose to write, here are a few tips to guide your pen.Stop and observe. Nature journaling is about paying attention to the world around you. Look for things you may never have noticed before.Even if it means a few extra pounds, always take your journal with you. You never know when inspiration might strike.Don’t be afraid if your writing’s not perfect. You’re doing this for you and you alone.
When Julia Bonney learned that several of her belongings had been stolen after someone broke into her friend’s car last year, it wasn’t her backpack, her textbooks or even her iPad that she missed the most. It was her journal.
“That was the thing that just destroyed me,” she says.
In the journal lay not only precious memories, but countless adventures. Records of clear nights atop Starr Mountain. Freedom found on trails out West. And though the leather-bound book was only one of many, to Bonney, it was more than irreplaceable. It was priceless.
Bonney started journaling when she was in grade school, but it wasn’t until she started backpacking in her late teens that it became more than a hobby. Being out in nature gave her writing a purpose, it seemed, and she soon found herself filling notebooks with descriptions of how each new place made her feel.
“I feel very close to the outdoors, and it gives me a lot of emotions to write down,” Bonney says.
Though Bonney has sworn to keep the contents of her journals private until after she’s dead (or famous), she agreed to give us a peak at some of her favorite entries.
Journal Entries
April 10, 2014There’s nothing quite like watching the sky wake up. If you have ever taken the time to observe, then you will know how the darkness is pushed back, long before the sun shows her face. You will understand the slow shift of color across the horizon. You will have felt the warmth that comes when the sun at last appears.… I need the mornings. I need the soft glow of the sun as she wakes the world up. I need the radiance that comes when she finds her place in the sky. For me, the sun is hope. Sun is a reminder that the darkness doesn’t last. It’s a chance to start over and shine brighter than ever before. … Mornings are so much more than the sign of a new day. They are the hope I need to carry on. I have fallen in love with the morning, and I know if you saw them how I do, you would fall in love too.May 21, 2015I’m in a cloud. Completely surrounded. Everywhere I turn is water and gray and mist.I’m currently at the top of Glacier Point with no way down except to walk. I guess the forecasts were right: we have rain.The clouds didn’t roll in until we neared the top and so the hike here was incredible. With every turn of the switchbacks we drew farther from the valley floor and were met with new views. It was breathtaking, and not just from elevation gain. It’s one thing to drive up to see the views, but there’s something to be said about using your own two legs to take you there. All that can take you higher is putting one foot in front of the other. All that can keep you going is the desire to touch the sky. And touch it we did.March 25, 2016The mountains are comfort. I’ve heard people say they don’t like their height, they don’t like way they wrap you inside as you wind your way through them. Yet I’ve always found them to be a hug. I feel safe when surrounded as though they guard me. They’re a fortress, a castle, a home.I know, I grew up among them and it’s natural I would love the place I’ve called home for so long , but it’s beyond that. I need the mountains and trees and rivers in the same way I need air and food and sleep. They are an essential part of my being, a key ingredient in the recipe that keeps me alive. I can’t picture life without them. People, places, they all come and go. But the mountains are my first and truest love and they will be a part of me forever.