The Dirt Diary

Earth is astounding. A black sand beach. Red rock cliffs. Yellow sulfur piled next to a field. A road cut exposing black lava shreds. White flexed, high mountain quartz. Tawny pebbles paving the Capital Mall.  Sun bleached shell shards. It's all here.

The dirt diary started on its own.... We were blasting down a long highway in the American Southwest. The landscape flying by the window was pink cliffs and red earth. I needed a closer look. We stopped the car to investigate. The ground was irresistible in its red intensity. I needed to take some home so I folded a handful of red sand into a slip of paper.  

Arriving home I had dirt in an envelope. Not so interesting, this lonely dirt sample... What to do with it? The perfect capture solution was the tiny aluminum box that some folks use for spices. These boxes display the color and textures of the earth in glossy little windows. With notes of the collection place and date on the back they make their own kind of journal. 

Besides creating an earthy record of travels, the dirt journal offers a traveler an excuse to pause, to explore, to look closer.  It's so easy to succumb to the mind numbing monotony of hours of driving.  It's hard to stop the car, yet stops are what makes a road trip interesting.  If I’m not driving, I say,  “Wow. Can you stop? Yeah. STOP the car.” Luckily my traveling partner agrees, we brake for Earth.  

Home again, I open the lid of my dirt journals and I see wild, wonderful textures and tones collected along the way. Those cheerful little windows remind me the places I have visited, of the fun of pausing along the trail, and how varied and colorful our Earth can be.   I'm happy that I brake for Earth.