Our lives are filled with extraordinarily ordinary moments.
Our souls are illuminated by them.
Sharing them around the hearths of our hearts,
we become tellers of sacred tales, artists of our lives.
–Dr. Susan Wittig Albert, Writing from Life
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| Image courtesy of thawats / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
It’s a Gift by J.Q. Rose
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| The most precious gift you can give to your children is a record of the stories about your family and your life.
Whether you decide to write them in a notebook or computer or record them on video or mP3 file, it makes no difference. The important thing is that you preserve these stories for future generations.
Some of you will push back from the idea of telling your life story because you haven't discovered a cure for cancer or designed a space ship to land on Mars. Your life is more important than any of that because you will be a historian writing about your times and happenings of the day. Only you can tell the truth about your life and experiences.
Future readers will wonder as they peruse the stories how you ever lived without a TV, computer, smart phone, or microwave (or what else they may be using in the future?). But the story of your life, the struggles, the joys, the accomplishments, will be what they understand. Your account will be a guide to help them through their own lives.
Decide to Do It Now
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| Don’t put it off anymore. Begin today. Pick one story out of all the family stories and write it down. Perhaps you remember a funny experience when you were in school. How about that disastrous Christmas dinner you prepared for your in-laws? What was your favorite toy when you were growing up and why? Is there a family recipe that has been passed down from one generation to the next? Share it and tell about the Grandma or Aunt or the person who used to prepare it for you.
See? Just pick out one story your family always tells at get-togethers and develop it. Scribble it down quickly without regard to your Sixth Grade teacher who would definitely mark it up with her red pen. You get the basics of the story (what I call the bones) down on paper, and then you can always go back and flesh out the details. Don’t worry about grammar and punctuation until you have the story down. Then you can revise and edit or have some fresh eyes read the story to find errors.
Once you begin writing and discussing your story, the joy you and your family receive from sharing it around your "hearths" or campfires will amaze you. Have fun with it.
My Mission
As you can tell, I am a crusader for life story writing. I have presented several workshops on Writing Life Stories. In April the woman who influenced me to pick up this cause passed away. To honor her work, I want to continue her mission of encouraging everyday people to record their stories. I will be presenting some ideas to you in the next few weeks to help you get started on writing your story. Please return Thursday, June 19, and the following Thursdays to get motivated to write/record your story.
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