Workshop:
Six Conversations for Writing Creative
Journals
“Memories,
all those little experiences make up the fabric of our lives and on balance, I
wouldn’t want to erase any of them, tempting though it may be.”
Ben Affleck
Journal
Note
For a few minutes write down your feelings of highs and lows over your
most recent holiday. Then go back through and put a circle around your
blessings with family. Next put a box around any lows. Were the lows connected
with personal issues, fatigue, time constraints, or family members?
Write down in the margin any follow-up contact promises you made to
anyone. Next time you sit down with your calendar mark them on a to-do list.
Since my family is now grown, any time we can get together is pure joy
for me, as well as extra exhaustion—not from any additional schedules but from
visiting and trying to catch up. Often I can feel guilty or sad afterwards
because we only have time for surface conversation, and it’s not always
possible to get to heart matters—to connect and build the new stages of
relationships as we all continue to mature into new seasons of life.
At the same time the interaction of having “all my peoples together,” as
my young grandson has said since he turned two, is so enriching as I listen to my
loved ones relating to each other and sharing their favorite childhood
memories.
Taking time to remember all the little details helps us to see our
heritage in a story framework rather than dates and facts. The memories become woven
into meaning.
Action
Steps: Learning
To Remember
1. Make a list of what you do remember.
2. Make a list of what you don’t remember. For
example, I have an almost photographic memory of my kitchen when I was five
years old, but without any memory at all of any smells in it.
3. What is a memory in your life that you
keep going back to? Look for one or two sharp details. Write it up as a
mini-vignette either in prose or poetry or a letter.
Share: What
particular detail stood out for you?
Read deep, marcy
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