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“You enter the extraordinary by way of the ordinary.” ~Frederick Buechner
Workshop:
Six Conversations for Writing Creative
Journals
“Take
care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them.” Bob Dylan
Family Heirlooms
Write
down what you or other family members pass along through generations, either of
value or humorous. Some of our Christmas ornaments seemed a bit odd after a few
generations.
Why
do some items become so special that there is conflict over who inherits it? Or
is something a complete mystery?
One
item that my youngest aunt saved for me from my paternal grandmother was a
christening gown, made of intricate lace and exquisite needlework. Each child
in the family had worn it, and I was the last to inherit it. How she came upon
such a rich garment from a very low working-class background was a secret that
no one knew the answer to. But it traveled across the ocean with her and was used
for the christenings of her next three children born in her new country.
Choose
one particular item and catalog it as if a museum piece. Send out letters
asking siblings or cousins what stories they remember and then put them all
together as a collection.
Action
Steps:
1. What heirloom has a secret?
2. Is it dangerous?
3. What damage could it do to present
relationships?
Share: What item
did you choose?
Read deep, marcy
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
Workshop:
Six Conversations for Writing Creative
Journals
“The
beautiful thing about memories is that they are yours; whether they are good,
bad, or indifferent. They belong to you, and no matter where you are now.”
Unknown
Family
Journals
Journaling about family, or with family, can help cement memories as well
as build new bridges. And family may, or may not, or both, be only biological,
but can also be the people who have become your chosen family over the years,
regardless of geographic distance.
The
interactions of past and present can impact our daily choices emotionally in
ways we sometimes don’t recognize at first, because they are automatic signals
that often we have forgotten, or are too busy to investigate. Taking time to
journal family matters helps us find threads both for ourselves personally now,
or as preparation for family memoirs, and as a basis to develop fictional
characters for writers.
Inheritance
goes far beyond any physical and financial categories. It involves
personalities, talents, humor, values, faith, commitments, and perceptions.
There are
three main areas in which family journaling is most effective: Family history,
family vacations, and family communications. All three have parts which enable
us to see what is strong in communication and connection, and, or, what is
missing and perhaps why. Once again the exercises for each category overlap and
can be interspersed.
Action
Steps:
1. What inheritance from your family have you
most cherished?
2. What inheritance have you most been
plagued, or challenged to change?
Share: Which of
these memories surprised you?
Read deep, marcy
Betta’s Song Book Launch
Family,
Faith, Mystery, Courage, Choices, Action and Adventure.
When bandit soldiers raid eleven-year-old
Narah’s village, she finds herself abandoned except for toddler Jael. While
attempting to reach her uncle in the next town, they are found by foreign Suman
soldiers who send them to a hostile household as servants.
Can Narah overcome her fear enough to uncover
hidden secrets and reach out to help others, including her enemies? Will her
compassion for others, her desire to be reunited with her grandmother, and her
growing faith in the Most High God be enough to sustain her through her trials?
E-book. Ages 8-12
Available now on Amazon: Marcy Weydemuller
Click on the cover and go straight to Amazon.
Hope you enjoy her story. If so, please take a few minutes to post a review, or
a star rating, or both. Thanks!
Read Deep
Marcy
Thank you new readers for choosing Light That Fractures to read. Hope you enjoy.
Please take a few minutes to post a review, or a star rating, or both. Thanks!
Invisible Light-Book Two-Available
Meet Ashia, a teenager uprooted from her home and family battles against depression and hopelessness to find God’s light.
When seventeen-year-old Ashia abruptly moves to San Francisco five months before her graduation, she is propelled into isolation both at home, and school, where she is seen as an intruder. When she uncovers a web of deceit exposing a counterfeit principal manipulating the school system for personal gain, her emotional darkness begins to close around her. Ashia attempts to battle depression and hopelessness. She searches for the Lord’s light and finds refuge in her poetry.
Click on the cover and go straight to Amazon.
Read Deep, Marcy
Looking for some fun reading breaks through the holidays?
Here’s what I’ve been reading in an assortment of short stories and novellas by
both new and multi published authors. Choose from a variety of genres: light
hearted to heavy drama, family G rated and a few PG with subject and language.
Choose from historical, romance, humor, contemporary, and super heroes. Enjoy!
 Where Treetops Glisten,
three novellas about the Turner family set in Lafayette, Indiana during the
Second World War. Faith, drama, romance, and intrigue. By Cara Putman, Sarah
Sundin, and Tricia Goyer.
Lawrence’s Gift,
from the Christmases Past short story series. Challis, Idaho 1941 and the large
Baxter family prepares to gather for the holidays as the news of Pearl Harbor
breaks out. Drama, conflict, tension, and hearts filled with love. By Anne
Baxter Campbell.
A Rare Snow, historical
Episode 6 from the Roaring Redwoods short story series. A look at the 1920’s “where the Pacific Ocean meets the
Redwoods, gangsters meet immigrants, loggers meet movie stars—and the lines
between right and wrong are obscured by the trees.” This has grittier content
and language based on real life characters and situations. This episode covers Christmas Eve through NewYear's Eve 1927. By Leo Colson
Kathi Macias’ 12 Days of Christmas, assorted contemporary and historical with
drama, families, faith, laughter, and commitment. By authors Kathi Macias, Kathy
Bruins, Jessica Ferguson, Christine Lindsay, Marcia Lee Laycock, Marcy
Weydemuller, Ruth L. Snyder, Sheila Seiler Lagrand, Peggy Blann Phifer, Anne
Baxter Campbell, Mishael Austin Witty, and Jeanette Hanscome
The Best Blue Christmas, contemporary short story reminding us
that for some Christmas brings up painful family memories. Yet hope beckons
amid sorrow, laughter and fellowship. By Tracy Krauss
A Very Merry
Superhero Wedding, a prequel contemporary novella to the
Adventures of Lewis and Clark series, an anthology of Romantic Short Stories. Tension,
action, humor and of course, romance. This novella releases on Christmas Eve.
By Kitty Bucholtz
Share: What Christmas story are you reading this year?
Read deep, marcy
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