Remember
List Your Life: A Modern-Day Memoir features prompts and quotes to guide readers in recalling the stories of their life and remembering the times that have been most important.
At the start of this writing project when I was floundering with a direction and format, I noticed how much I enjoyed remembering important dates and people. I found myself transported to all sorts of stages of my life. Just a little nugget of a story was enough to launch me back to a scene and be in the moment, in the memory, with friends and family, good food and drink, and lots of adventures.
Each writing idea in List Your Life is designed to draw out important points of a person's life, whether light and fun or more serious and thoughtful. Some people vividly recollect special days with concise details of momentous events — I wish I was one of those people. I am terrible at recalling memories on demand, but once I start stringing events, people and places together, it all comes back to me. With a prompt to get me started, I am off down memory lane.
It was fun to remember when my toddler twins left a sand trail through the house as they came in from the sandbox, making a Hansel-and-Gretel line so I could find them. I thought back to the very first moment when I realized I would be a teacher, and I remembered all the joy that burst from me at that one pivotal phone call. Students who shaped me both as a teacher and as a person came floating back through memories of all the school years from the last two decades. Revisiting those important times has brought peace, joy and inspiration.
In remembering, I discovered that my greatest desire was to share the memories and let my friends and family know just how much I treasure our times together. With any luck, they, too, will write their stories and send the ripples of memories out to be shared with others.
I don't know if it's my age or I just didn't pay enough attention, but I need reminders, and it's becoming important to me to record the stories. The lack of crispness of memories also propels me further in my desire to write what is clear. From talking with others my age and older, it makes sense to keep track of the memories and get them in writing now.
I relish in my stories and savor the memories, and a good prompt takes me in the direction of those I want to hold. In List Your Life, readers will be ushered through their memories and gather the stories that matter most.
