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Memories in Gray of a Mother and her Daughter

10/31/2010 By 2 Comments
Brain

Grey some say. I always spell it gray, so I guess that means I'm one of those wayward Americans, which I am proud to be!—I’m told the King’s English uses an “e” to spell gray. Either way, gray or grey can be dispiriting. Would Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue have connected so powerfully with music lovers if it had been Rhapsody in Gray? Some of us cover the gray in our hair with coats of many colors, and when I hear "the graying of America," I can't help but visualize old, bent folks trudging along into oblivion, and I don’t think that’s the way people in their “Golden Years” ought to be portrayed. I revel in the eerie grayness of fog, and I dream of gray, rainy days when it’s okay to curl up with a book and not feel guilty. And then there are the early morning hours and those at dusk when the world seems to stand grayishly still for a time before giving us the day or the night. Those are often moments of forgiveness, even promise. Treasure to be sure. Gray

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Making a Memoir Teacher Blush

10/18/2010 By 2 Comments

What's a memoir teacher to do when a student makes her blush with humility and delight? Well, this one is going to share Marlene's kind words with you hoping you will follow her lead and write memoir: Dear Lynn,  Your workshop, Keeping Spirits Alive, was just an amazing experience!  Not only did my grandmother’s spirit come to life within me, you, dear heart, suffused my spirit with the passion, joy and unbound excitement to travel in time and space to converse with the many spirits who’ve touched my life over the years and to invite them to be heard and remembered. Your invitation to “look through their eyes;” to see, to hear, to viscerally experience my grandmother as if I were her was a profound experience for me.  What a rare gift you are.  I am so amazed that three hours could so change my life, my perspective and my journey here on this planet.    Thank you for the safe space you created to share myself.  Thank you for the wonderful teachings, tips, and

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Expand Your Comfort Zone by Writing Memoir

10/06/2010 By Leave a Comment

Are you toying with the idea of writing a memoir? Are you unsure or fearful of venturing out of your comfort zone to become the author of your true tales? You’re thinking: I’ve never written anything before.  I‘d like to write a memoir, but I don’t think I have the talent to make my experiences come alive. I’m thinking: Take a chance. Try something new. Trust your voice. You do have what it takes to write. I believe you’ll find a new friend in memoir. First of all, ask yourself if you believe your memories are important and worth sharing? Then think about the last time you told a friend or relative an anecdote about a significant memory of someone in your life. Did your telling the story peak the listener’s interest? More than likely it did. Finally, are you comfortable leaving significant memories stuffed away in your head rather than writing them down on paper for future generations to discover and glean insight into their heritage, or will you let

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Memory: The Conscious Currency

09/25/2010 By Leave a Comment

Memories are currency in more ways than one. What are we without memory? And what will happen to the important memories of our lives and the lives of those around us, if we don’t write them down? On a scrap of paper I recently came across on my cluttered desk, I’d written down a thought about memory I’d picked up somewhere, though I neglected to make note of where. I guess I thought I’d remember who said it—but can’t, so I’ll just say it, anyway. It went something like this, Memory was all I had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive. I can see why I jotted it down—food for thought, certainly. It got me thinking about some of the elements involved in memory creation. Feelings are imprinted to memory. Often, when a memory is recalled, the exact feelings we felt at the time the memory etched a pathway in our brains is felt front and center. Our personal feelings about an incident or individual, then, are integral parts of each memory. Some memories fade

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Write with your Imagination to find Passion and Emotion

08/30/2010 By Leave a Comment

In answer to the many questions I've received on how to infuse more passion and emotion into your stories, here are a few thoughts on how to make it happen. You set the tone of your story by injecting passion and emotion as you see it, as you feel it. We all have emotional memory, and it is best illuminated through the power of imagination, when we recall the emotions we felt at the time an incident occurred. We each see people and actions in a special light - a light stemming uniquely from the very core of each of us.  As a collector of stories, I revel in this light; it is this reflection of ourselves that ignites the radiant glow of colors making up the spectrum of our collective souls. The best way to write passion and emotion into your stories is to put yourself in your characters' shoes.  In each particular circumstance, take yourself to that place where the character you're writing about is. With a little practice, you will learn to use your innate powers of imagination

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Aha! Moments: Memoir Labyrinth Writing Series No. 10

08/13/2010 By Leave a Comment

Aha! We’re back to the power of words and how writing affects each of us. When we write stories, we stir memories, and to put those memories down on paper, we call on creative insight, which is triggered by a specific, scientifically traceable, kind of internal energy. When you to write short, true tales—bio-vignettes—about someone of significance in your life by finding the Aha! moment you will seize as the basis for your story, your creative instincts are jump started. It’s no wonder why, during one of my workshops, for instance, people move into a space of intense focus and high energy while writing their “Mother Memoirs,” as well as becoming completely tuned in to the work of other writers in the group. These power filled experiences come about as a direct result of finding and moving compelling memories to memoir. Let’s find that Aha! moment by walking through the labyrinth of our minds with this tried and true exercise: Tell yourself you are going on a

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Move from Empty to Satisfied by Writing Memoir

08/07/2010 By Leave a Comment

I don’t know a writer of memoir who feels empty while writing. They experience myriad feelings, but emptiness isn’t among them. They are engaged in the very personal, willful, and soulful act of creating a true story from memory, which is incongruent with the definition of emptiness. Lately, however, I see and hear the word empty all over the place. Empty has many meanings. Unfulfilled seems to cover a lot of ground, from empty emotions, empty pages, empty promises, empty pocket books, to empty buckets—buckets not filled with tears, since the river has gone dry. When one woman said she felt so drained and empty, life was so meaningless after experiencing a great personal loss, she had no tears left to cry, I was filled with compassion. After expressing my concern towards her and suggesting she could seek comfort by writing about her loss, she wrote me saying a renewal of her spirit had taken hold, in unanticipated ways, as she sensed emptiness diminish through the energy of her

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Memory in Apricot

07/27/2010 By 2 Comments
Apricot Tree

Some time ago, as tears I thought had dried dissolved into curve of smile, I sprinkled my mother's ashes in my garden under the apricot tree, From which we made amazing jam for many years to come. Touch of cinnamon, of nutmeg, not too sweet... One spring no buds appeared on that pleasing tree.  It was old, it died—as creatures do—tears then on gnarled branches. A simple stump remains, marking. Nice to touch, sensing. My mother winks at me, sometimes, from apricot jam on buttered toast.

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