New Year, New Goals

Is this the year you will write your personal history? Each month I will have a topic or category with some "memory triggers" to get you started thinking and writing.

Members of your family want to know more about you than you think. They will treasure every word you write. To them, you are the connection, the bridge between the remarkable past and the present. By writing your history you will be giving to others a gift of hope, of commitment to life and loved ones, a gift of affection. Your history is about the times you’ve live in, the people and events that helped shape you, how and who you’ve loved, what has stirred you, and how you’ve tried.

You may ask yourself, "what would anyone want to know about me?" What indeed! Each of us has an interesting and inspiring life, just waiting to be shared with others. A teenager might want to know, did her grandmother love music, did she dance, and to what music? A young sports enthusiast wonders, what games did grandfather play? A beginning cook longs for his/her mother’s recipes, and wonders if mother remembers any of grandmother’s recipes, or better yet, wrote them down.

We are surprisingly curious about these everyday details. Many of us also long for something more, something deeper. "I wanted to know," one person said, "not just what happened in Mother’s life, but what she felt when it was happening." It is the everyday joys and sorrows as well as the "big events" that provide the fertile connecting ground between generations.

Here is your chance to tell your story – to share your experiences and your feelings about those experiences. Part of your life may already be known to others, but don’t assume that what seems obvious to you will be familiar to them.

As you write your history, this gift you give to others will repay you many times over and could become the gateway to a wider vision of your life. Your reflections and responses can uncover a purpose you may not have know or realized, a resolution and awareness of your life’s fullness.

Good luck as you embark on this journey of writing your history, your Legacy – it will be a treasure for you and your family – the best gift you can give your loved ones!

So get your pencils sharpened or computer keys warmed up and let’s get started!

January: Who You Are
February: Beginnings and Childhood
March: Adolescence
April: Early Adult Years
May: Courtship and Marriage
June: Being a Parent
July: [none]
August: Middle Adult Years
September: Being a Grandparent/Later Adult Years
October: Reflections
November: Putting it All Together and Sharing Your Story