My New Journal

Yesterday in Hanoi, around noon, I was walking back from a café to my hostel when I stumbled upon a small shop selling naturally dyed goods. They had bags, wallets, scarves, robes, all kinds of beautiful items dyed using traditional techniques by the Hmong people of Northern Vietnam.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know I have a bit of an obsession with naturally dyed textiles. Before coming here, I knew Vietnam had a rich history of textile dyeing, so I’d been keeping an eye out for pieces like this.

One item I picked up was a notebook dyed in natural indigo, with a hand-drawn Batik print. The cover was stunning, and the paper inside had this soft, off-white tone with visible pulp.

Over the years, I’ve noticed something: when I use a good notebook and pen, I write more. Something about quality tools makes me want to sit down and put pen to paper. I’ve used the same pen for seven years now: a gold-plated Parker Jotter that was gifted to me by coworkers at the end of an internship. I just refill it when it runs out. And this morning, with this new notebook in hand, I had one of the most inspired journaling sessions I’ve had in a long time.