YOUR LIFE STORY....
I recently ran a writing memoir workshop and once again I was amazed at so many people who thought 'who would be interested in my life.'
Everyone has a story to tell. Every one. Yes, not all of them are going to be award winning best sellers, but even if you are leaving your story for your children or grand-children or great-grand-children, then it's worth it.
In this workshop were people who grew up in Collingwood in the forties...folks who had been born in India and came to the cultural difference of Australia in the sixties....people who had left the inner city at 18 to work on a cattle station in central Queensland.
There were reminisces of the ice man deliveries, of the local bookie and his 'cocky' or lookout (policeman's son), of being evicted and coming home from school to find all the furniture out in the street.
Some of these stories were powerful, full of pain and even anger after a lot of years.
But our pasts are what has created us. Our life story is our map to who we are today.
And so much social history is lost if not put down.
I encouraged, I cajoled, I urged and perhapsthreatened enticed and my attendees wrote. And wrote and wrote.
Many were excited by where this memory would take them. The knowledge that they don't have to edit or sensor their words.
Your life story is just that....your viewpoint. Your opinions. Your rose tinted glasses or dark shades.
So much of my mother's life history is lost. She has one remaining brother alive and he was so much younger than Mum, that a lot is rumour. I have no one left to ask questions of.
Dad did love to talk, but I don't think I got around to asking the right questions.
It's not too late to start asking questions of those you want to know more from.
One of the attendees was a funeral celebrant and said 'it's so sad to do a funeral where no one can offer up any stories of what the person had done. When no one really knew them.'
We all have a story. Don't leave it too late to tell yours.
Vicki
Everyone has a story to tell. Every one. Yes, not all of them are going to be award winning best sellers, but even if you are leaving your story for your children or grand-children or great-grand-children, then it's worth it.
In this workshop were people who grew up in Collingwood in the forties...folks who had been born in India and came to the cultural difference of Australia in the sixties....people who had left the inner city at 18 to work on a cattle station in central Queensland.
There were reminisces of the ice man deliveries, of the local bookie and his 'cocky' or lookout (policeman's son), of being evicted and coming home from school to find all the furniture out in the street.
Some of these stories were powerful, full of pain and even anger after a lot of years.
But our pasts are what has created us. Our life story is our map to who we are today.
And so much social history is lost if not put down.
I encouraged, I cajoled, I urged and perhaps
Many were excited by where this memory would take them. The knowledge that they don't have to edit or sensor their words.
Your life story is just that....your viewpoint. Your opinions. Your rose tinted glasses or dark shades.
So much of my mother's life history is lost. She has one remaining brother alive and he was so much younger than Mum, that a lot is rumour. I have no one left to ask questions of.
Dad did love to talk, but I don't think I got around to asking the right questions.
It's not too late to start asking questions of those you want to know more from.
One of the attendees was a funeral celebrant and said 'it's so sad to do a funeral where no one can offer up any stories of what the person had done. When no one really knew them.'
We all have a story. Don't leave it too late to tell yours.
Vicki
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