My pile of Field Notes laid dormant for a while because they tend to bleed with my fountain pen or roller balls. On a surprising turn of events (meeting Tsuchihashi san and his idea note), I realized I hadn't been jotting down my dreams for a long while and started to look for a handy reliable notebook to do so all over again.
The trigger was a week ago when my Dad passed away. I was expecting to see him at least in my dreams on the 7th day of his passing, realizing that I had to write down every single word I would hear from him, I frantically picked up Field Notes and pondering how I would attach a pen onto it for quick access.
There it was, a few hours of measuring and hammering, I made a leather vest from ~1mm thin leather (Australian Gold) attaching to Field Notes' cover and holds a wooden ball pen from Japan I love.
So by the 7th night of his passing, I had this fully equipped, following me all the time. Did he came into my dreams? No. But he did tell a love story I will never forget from his small moves.
I guess the insight was "life is what happens when you are busying making other plans". No regret trying.
You can plan so much and things are not happening the way you expected, but the cool thing to realize is that, things would always turn out to be more beautiful, that is, only had you acted.
The leather vest I made was just the right size to allow me rolling the Field Notes in half for compact storage in jackets. The proportion even allows me to use it on a typical thicker (and dull) Moleskine in pocket size.
I encourage you to make one yourself, you should be proud of what you can do and carry inspirations (idea notes) and dreams in your pocket. Fear not losing the notes coz that's only the physical record of what you've already gotten.
Today, I brought my kid out to Cheung Chau island for a leisure cycling, feeling contented my vest and FN, along side with my inspirations and dreams were with me.
