Not everyone likes to write,
but you do.

Not everyone thinks it's fun to fill paper with words,
but you do.

Not everyone enjoys looking at an empty screen or a blank page,
but you don't see an empty screen,
for you the blank page is not there.

You see clouds, or mountains, or the ocean, or your backyard.
You remember a scent.
You recall a touch.

Where to start?
Words, choices, phrases, a description, a color, a feeling,
tumble in your mind until one first letter catapaults out...... free.

And then you begin.

What is meant by a life story?

I believe that a life story is your way to convey to yourself and whoever might read it the essence of what you know your life to be about. This might include moments that were important to you, it might include descriptions of events that unfolded. A story about your life also can tell about hobbies and pastimes that entertained and enlightened you. Behind your descriptions of these moments, events and pastimes lies the meaning that moved you forward as the years flew by.

My grandmother always used to say, "years fly" and when I was a child, I must admit to knowing that wasn't true since it was such a long time from one Christmas to the next. Even though I believed everything that my Grandmother told me, when it came to that truth of hers, I would say, "but it's such a long time until Christmas." And she would laugh.

But as I grow older, and with my Grandmother long passed from this world, I know that she was right of course. Years do fly. And when we allow some time to reflect and look back, perhaps some highlights emerge in our thoughts. Even perhaps there were patterns where we only saw random events when we were in the thick of them.

For those of us who enjoy writing, the exercise of putting words around these events and moments and thoughts is very satisfying. This is a story that doesn't begin at the beginning. It begins wherever it falls.

Every life story has a life of its own. No two individuals travel the same path. Giving yourself the opportunity to wrap some of your memories into sentences and then paragraphs can provide insights and learning. "Well done," you can safely say. You were always doing your best. Writing your life story gives you the chance to put some perspective on the journey.

What happens when you put yourself into the mindset that is guided by faith and not ruled by fear?

In the book "Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway," Susan Jeffers has a chapter called "Pollyanna Rides Again," and it's about the power of positive thinking. She says that "it is reported that over 90% of what we worry about never happens. That means that our negative worries have about a 10% chance of being correct."

So that means that if we have a negative view of taking chances and are always focusing on being "realistic," then we won't take a chance. But there was only a 10% chance that the negative "realistic" view was even possible. it was more probable that we weren't being realistic at all.

In Jack Canfield's book "The Success Principles," he says, "Roadblocks are simply obstacles that the world throws at you. They are simple circumstances you need to deal with in order to move forward."

So that would be a "faith not fear" way of thinking. It's just a roadblock.

We all have roadblocks in our lives. There is always a new challenge. I have found in the business world that rather than talking about issues, people refer to opportunities. It sounds better. To say, what is the opportunity here, sounds much more promising than what's the issue, what's wrong, what is the problem.

So you might think about a time that you faced a roadblock and turned it into an opportunity. Maybe there was a difficult circumstance, maybe you moved, started a new career, launched a business, or learned to ride a bicycle or to swim. There were roadblocks, but you didn't see them.

You didn't see them because you were guided by faith and not ruled by fear.
 
You might want to write a story about that.

This I Believe is an international project engaging people in writing and sharing essays describing the core values that guide their daily lives. Over 60,000 of these essays, written by people from all walks of life, are archived on the website, www.thisibelieve.org. Edward R. Murrow began the radio program in the 1950's.

I recently purchased the book version which contains 75 of these essays. Reading it, I was inspired and awed. These are 500-word essays that express the core beliefs that guide everyday life. They demonstrate how different we all are. And at the same time, they seemed to tell me how similar we all are too.

In one of the books I have on my coffee table, by Michael Bernard Beckwith, he says, There is a distinction between personality and character. The word character is from the Old French caractere meaning "imprint on the soul." while the word personality suggests veneer and is connected with the Latin word persona which was a mask worn by actors. He says, "it's easy to tell if you are living from character or personality: If things aren't going your way, personality pouts while character remains unruffled and learns from the experience. When you are not in psychologically or emotionally safe territory, personality panics. Character, on the other hand, rides the vicissitudes of life with even-mindedness. "

It seemed to me that, reading through the essays in the book This I Believe, the writers were expressing character rather than personality. The beliefs expressed came from that place that weathered the storm, crossed the bridge, saw the higher path.

Writing about what you believe would be a thoughtful process. It might be a good Christmas gift to your children, or to your grandchildren. You might want ot give it a try.

Maybe your To Do list is a mile long and too deep for you to even stick your toe in the water without drowning. It’s a list that has been growing for months and the more you grasp after whittling it down, the longer it grows. One thing leads to another, you tell yourself, feeling exhausted. Day after day, you move along, pretty satisfied with your life, but never feeling like you are getting it all done.

 

Maybe the good news is that you will never get it all done. Try as hard as you might, the more you pile on wanting things, the longer the list will grow. So what do you do?

 

You take the list and give it a vacation. You take a Getaway Day.

 

Have you done that lately? It is something you can write about. What led up to it? What was going on? Why were you compelled to just chuck it all, the whole list and just take off.

 

It might have been for an afternoon, or a morning. Maybe you just stayed at home and allowed yourself an entire afternoon to read a good book that’s been sitting on your bedside table for the past three months collecting the dust that you’ve been too busy to wipe away.

 

I recently had a getaway day. It happened by accident. On Sunday morning, I woke up early and went to the Farmer’s Market. I wandered through the stalls. The day was sunny and fine. There was a musician playing even so early as 8 a.m. I had a cup of hot coffee in my hand. I bought beets and potatoes and chard and beautiful round crunchy Asian pears as well as some of the last of the fat tomatoes.

 

I walked to my car. I drove away.

 

But as I went down the drive and onto the street, on my way to church and gardening and house-cleaning catch-up I was struck on impulse and turned right on the freeway instead of going straight.

 

Forty-five minutes later, I was sitting in a coffee shop with a beautiful pastry and the morning paper, in a small town in the wine country. I glanced through the paper and then had a chance to take a deep breath and look out the window at the leaves turning crinkly brown colors against the gazebo where a band must play on summer afternoons.

 

It was an escape from the week, an escape from the chores. They could wait for another day. I finished my coffee and pastry and wandered around the town. It was an overcast day, clouds in a shadow, wrapping the town and me in a cocoon. I went to the bookshop and sat in a chair and took the time to read the beginnings of several books before I made my decisions on what to purchase.

 

I walked some more, went to an art gallery. At lunchtime I found a little café down a side street and it looked like it was populated with locals rather than the well-heeled tourists most common to the town. I went in. They had a smoked duck sandwich on the menu for only $12. I asked the waiter about it. He said they made it themselves right there in the kitchen. I ordered it and I was not disappointed. It was lean and tender and there was a little gruyere cheese melted on the whole wheat toast so that it was just mouth watering.

 

Very satisfied with my adventure, I felt relaxed and ready to return home.

 

The list did wait for me. But I was able to cross a whole bunch of things right off of it and read one of my books on the sofa instead.

 

As you read this, you might be thinking of a time that you took off and went somewhere or did something on impulse. You could write a story about that time.

When you think of favorite holiday meals, it isn't just the turkey and stuffing that comes to mind. You remember the people, the place, the occasion. You remember the tradition. You might remember the preparation, the thoughtfulness over the menu, the carefulness about trying a new dish. You might recall the time that the star of the meal, highly anticipated, was burned or undercooked. These memories provide a wonderful backdrop for a holiday recipe.

The remembered scenes are a gift that can go along with sharing the recipe.

Here's an example.

There was the time that Grandma and Aunt Gladys argued over the gravy. Everyone knew the argument wasn't really about the gravy. And they also, all these same related people who had been gathering together all these years, had all seen this storm brewing. But when it finally came, the words came flying out of the kitchen and directly into the ears of everyone in the house. Uncle Gladys cringedin his chair. The football game paled on the television. Cousin Judy drew in her breath. Grandpa sighed.

"Too much salt," said Gladys again. "It always has to be your way. Well this is my home and I want to makethe gravy my way."

There was a big silence. The walls in the cozy house contained them all together in this scene. Dinner was at stake. The gravy was the last step to the meal that they had been hungrily anticipating all afternoon. Outside the front room window, large snowflakes drifted down. The fire crackled. A log fell.

Then grandma said, "OK, no more salt." She paused."Grandpa shouldn't have it anyway."

The room breathed a sigh of relief. Cousin Judy reached for a peanut from the dish on the coffee table. Grandpa winked at her. Uncle Gladys rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. Just then a gust of wind blew a flurry of snow across the window.

Here is Aunt Gladys' Gravy Recipe

Ingredients:
Turkey drippings
Three gingersnap cookies (or to taste)
1 full tablespoon of flour
1/2 cup of water
Spices, salt and pepper to taste

Pour off the juices from the roasted turkey into a gravy strainer, strain off the fat, and pour what's remaining into a medium sized saucepan.
Add three gingersnap cookies (or to taste).
Mix up a full tablespoon of flour in a half cup of water and blend it all till smooth.

Bring the drippings and gingersnaps to a boil.
Slowly pour in the flour mixture, continuously stirring to the thickness desired.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Sometimes the headlines provide food for story ideas. Often they are silly in themselves. What publishers believe that people, women specifically are thinking and concerning their minds with can be puzzling, or at best, hilarious.

What about this one, here's a real burning question of the day, "How to Apply Liquid Eyeliner." I am sure that we are all lying awake nights worrying about whether we are getting this one right. Here's another one, "The Perfect Bra for Your Body." Does such a thing exist?

Here's my personal favorite, "Lose Weight at Any Age." My 86-year-old friend will like that one. She says at her age, she is allowed to look just as she pleases and I say good for her. Or here's another good one, "Sexy New Perfume Alert." Better read this and stay tuned in.

As we all move busily about our day, maybe these headlines can help us with their silliness, to pause for a moment.

We recently had our story contest and had six wonderful entries.

The theme of the contest was a summer memory. All the stories are in the Collection on TellOurLifeStories.com.

There was a story about visiting a place long heard of in family stories, An Iowa Adventure. Here is the first line of that story, "They say that every journey begins with the first step. The journey I envisioned began with a thought - a need almost - to see the home town where my father grew up."

There was a poem, titled, Summer that begins, "The fleeting moments of summer..."

Another poignant story, What This Summer Means to Me was about a mother who is aging and has Alzheimer's disease, it begins, "For the first time in my life, my mother does not know me."

A fourth story, Irish Bread - An Old Family Story, begins, "I am a first generation Irish-American. My parents came from two small villages located at the far end of a peninsula that juts out between Brandon Bay and Tralee bay, on the north coast of the Dingle peninsula in County Kerry."

The fifth, Summer Fun starts this way, "When our children were young (6 and 10 - they are now 43 and 47 - but don't tell them I told you), we began spending many summers backpacking and camping with my parents who were avid outdoor enthusiasts."

And the sixth, You Scream, I Scream, begins, "We all scream for ice cream! At least my dad does; always has; always will."

It was very difficult to select a winning story, but it had to be done and the winning story is What This Summer Means to Me.

The winner receives a $50 Visa gift card. You can log in and read all the stories if you are a member of TellOurLifeStories.com or you can join up for free for 30 days to try it out. We only charge a small yearly membership of $28.98 to keep up the maintenance and security on the website.

Here is the link to the free trial so that you can enjoy the stories:
Free Trial to TellOurLifeStories.com

I found that I was sitting way too much. Sitting at work all day and then coming home, the last thing I wanted to do was sit in front of a computer again to engage in my website. I was adding pounds and moving toward a tendency to snack.

I wanted to work on my website and exercise at the same time.

I don't have hundreds of dollars for a treadmill with an adjustable desk. What to do? I got an exercise bike on sale at Sears, a simple one I can move from room to room for $149. I love my exercise bike. How to put the laptop on the exercise bike? Got one of those plexiglass book holders for $10, propped the laptop on it with bungee cord and voila! I am all set, biking and blogging. Put a strip of felt on the bookholder where my wrists rest for added comfort!

In my world, I work at a day job at a computer all day, and I love to cook and garden too. I work out at a gym several times during the week too, but it's still not enough.

Thinking back 50 years ago or even 25 before computers became so prevalent, people walked more, did things outside more and moved more in general. Out bodies weren't meant to spend 10-12 hours or more sitting in front of a little screen.

But being what it is, then solutions need to be found that can help us to still move around while we are doing things that we enjoy, like writing online and blogging, or doing other things at the computer. The time will come eventually, and tools will become more economically feasible to enable people to type at a screen and still engage in comfortable movement, rather than sitting. I'm all for that!

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