journal features

ten years with this journal

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2017.01.01

I've been keeping this journal for a full decade, now! It started, I admit, with just some pencil-sketch thoughts on movie reviews. But I've put a fair bit of work into it now. It's amazing to see how far I've come. I've lived in two new Canadian provinces and two new countries on two new continents. Yes, there have been some gaps: it took me 2.5 years to start doing it regularly, and then recently there was a long gap. But with over 1,600 posts I think I'm into a routine and can do this life-long.

rand()m quote

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier than I've been on this trip. I know very few things I'd take seriously any more. I'd certainly be less hygenic... I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have many more of them, in fact I'd try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of my day. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I'd stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and catch more gold rings, and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more often. If I had it to do all over again - but you see, I don't.

—Jorge Luis Borges