Writing Life Blog

Of Luck and Courage

The magic gleam of La Fortuna beckons to us every single day. The question is: Do we allow ourselves to see these opportunities? Do we have the courage to seize the moment and commit to exploring a new path?

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Challenges of Memoir

There are as many ways to write memoir as there are to live a life. There is no formula for how to balance your dual role of narrator and protagonist. But here are some considerations to have in mind as you work on putting your life stories on to the page.

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New Lenses on Childhood

Purposeful memoir seeks to recover the wisdom that lies embedded, often unrecognized, in our memories of the past. By reanimating the joys and tenderly transmuting the sorrows we have lived through, we will be able to move more powerfully and surely into the thriving future we can co-create with kindred spirits on our path.

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Seeking Community

Seeking Community I am a classic introvert. Since childhood I’ve been most comfortable alone, enjoying quiet time with a beloved pet at my side, secure in the love of my family constellated out around me. As a child, I loved taking long, solitary rambles through the...

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Alchemizing the Primal Mud of Memory

Memoir uses the primal mud of memory as its raw material; the art and craft of memoir is all in the telling. Part of the alchemy of purposeful memoir is in transforming the rough jewels of memory into polished gems of stories and scenes that bring the past alive again.

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Introducing….The Alchemy of Purposeful Memoir

I’ve come to realize that the process of purposeful memoir has alchemical power. Through writing our life stories, we have the potential to transmute the inevitable sorrows and pain of existence into something more positive—the philosopher’s stone of understanding, which truly is worth its weight in gold.

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The Alchemy of Purposeful Memoir: Seeking Joy

I think of joy like a lighthouse light that we have to tend, especially in the darkest, stormiest weather, to serve as a beacon for others. The work of the purposeful memoirist is to share our stories to help light the way for others coming alongside or behind us on the journey of life.

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Purposeful Memoir and Manifesto: Exploring the Past to Reinvent the Future

“Part of the deep work of purposeful memoir is bringing ourselves into the sunlight of forgiveness—forgiving ourselves as well as others. I can’t say I have always achieved this, brooding Scorpio that I am, but it is a work in progress that I come back to each time I re-open the doors leading to episodes from my personal history, played out against the political and planetary landscapes of my lifetime.”

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Finding your way back to PLACE

One of the great challenges and joys of memoir is trying to recreate in words the sensuous experience of the places that have had great impact on our lives. Sometimes it’s for a positive reason—the place you fell in love!—and sometimes it may be the backdrop for some...

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