I often remind people that purposeful memoir is not just for memoirists. Writing about your life in a purposeful way offers many blessings, with publication only one, and possibly not the most important one at that.
In the years that I have followed the elemental journey of purposeful memoir in my own life, I have learned so much not only about myself, but also about my ancestors, my family, my society, my country, and the planet we all call home.
What’s special about purposeful memoir is that it’s not just about looking back over the life you have lived. It’s about revisiting the past and examining the present in order to envision the life you want to create and live into.
In purposeful memoir, past and future meet on the growing edge of the present—on the page you are writing right now, today.
Once we’ve understood, deeply, where we come from and who we are, we’re ready to take the next step of imagining who we want to become.
For this reason, just as fantasy and dream play an enormous role in our waking and sleeping lives, so too they have an important presence in our memoir journeys.
If you’ve ever spent time talking with a very young child, you’ll remember that one of their favorite questions, after “Why?” is “What if…?”
As children, our imaginations are still wide open to possibility, and we are constantly making up stories about what might happen, or embroidering the reality of what did happen, to get to an outcome we like better.
As purposeful memoirists, we can conjure a potent transformational magic when we tap into the free-spirited childlike imagination that still lies at the core of each one of us, nourished by our dreams and daydreams.
We’ll be tapping into our innate powers of magical transformation at my upcoming purposeful memoir workshop on September 23 at Bascom Lodge, at the summit of Mount Greylock, MA, a magical place to be sure!
If you’re in the region, come meet me on the mountain to explore not only the straight and narrow of our life journeys, but also the roads not taken, and the choices that still lie in front of us.
Whether or not you actually have a memoir in the works, this kind of writing is fun and thought-provoking, a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
More information and registration here.
See you on the mountain!
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