Keep a small notebook. Write crookedly. Don’t edit. Let the motion carry the pen.
Writing at a desk feels different. It’s solid, intentional, heavy with the pressure to mean something. But writing po drodze — en route — is lighter. You’re already leaving. So the stakes drop. You can afford to be strange, incomplete, contradictory. The road will forgive you.
That’s when I reach for my notebook — the one with the stained cover and the bent spine — and start scribbling. Not diary entries. Not poems. Something rawer. Zapiski czynione po drodze. Notes made along the way. zapiski czynione po drodze
These notes don’t aspire to be wisdom. They’re more like breadcrumbs. Little proofs that I was here, in this particular moving moment, paying attention.
There’s a certain kind of clarity that only comes when you’re between places. Not quite where you started, not yet where you’re going. The horizon wobbles. The radio fades in and out. And in that suspension, something softens in the mind. Keep a small notebook
Because one day you’ll look back and realize: the destination blurred, but the notes remained. And in them, you’ll find not just where you went, but who you were while getting there.
I don’t plan them. They happen at rest stops, on train fold-down tables, in the passenger seat while someone else drives through a tunnel. A sentence about the light on wet asphalt. A half-thought about a conversation from three years ago. A list: things I should have said, things I’m glad I didn’t. Let the motion carry the pen
Or: why I’ve started writing in the margins of movement
Here’s a draft for a blog post titled (Notes Made Along the Way). The tone is reflective, lyrical, and slightly philosophical — fitting for a personal journal-style entry. Title: Zapiski czynione po drodze