Keeping and making sense of notes is an exercise in and of itself. Especially with all the different ways to capture the things we want to think about a little longer, or maybe even write about later on. My pile is always growing and seems to be everywhere: in my email, on my phone notes, and on countless pieces of paper. Reading through them is always nice, even transportive. When I find a torn piece of paper scribbled with words I want to hold on to, it takes me back to the time and place I wrote it. These notes are snapshots of our lives, a chronology. Last week, I heard more about this subject during an interview between Terry Gross and American novelist, Richard Ford. Here’s what he said on the subject of note-taking:

“If I read something that I think is really interesting, I’ll copy it out on a 3×5 card, and look at it every once in a while. It just sort of reminds me of great things, reminds me of great things that people have said, and encourages me about literature.”

On how he files and organizes them, he adds:

“They are a chaos and I often skim through them. If I’m on a plane sometime and I don’t know what to read and I don’t feel like reading, I’ll just get out this lump of 3×5 cards and read them through. I feel much better after that somehow.”

I loved hearing this. There is something very calming about reading the words we’ve chosen to remember. Happy Friday.

{Photo of Liv Tyler from Stealing Beauty; Richard Ford interview via Fresh Air.}