GROWING OLDER, THINKING AND WRITING A LIFE

As my age turns to seventy years in 2010, I am finding time for reflections of the life I have lived. My reflections to be scribbled onto blank pages. How do I begin the process?

A large plastic envelope filled with old photos could possibly be a place to start. Perhaps they would jump-start images along with mind memories. Examining each one carefully could awaken my personal landscapes...why, when, how, who, and where it was taken. You could call it the bones of a memory. Of course each photo will be but a piece of my life, yet they can be woven along with other scraps to compose a life tapestry.

Why photos? Why not sit down and just start writing memories. Because, I feel that using both memory and vision together can produce a closer proximity to the real life. I plan to title my writings, Making a Childhood. Although one reading of Making a Childhood will not provide a full perspective of a young life, the gaps can produce interpretations open to the reader.

Why write a story of one's life? Especially a common life. Several reasons. Haven't you at some time wished you knew the true story about some family member but knew it was too late as they had passed away. Or, you have a desire to leave a textual footprint for future generations? And if not any of the last two reasons, perhaps for yourself to understand a life one has lived.

We all live and we all die. I do not believe that we are on earth for any general purpose -- only for the opportunity to live a good life if possible. We are given the tools to explore this opportunity in whatever capacity we desire. We can be caught in traps all along the way and sometimes those traps are our demise. We can travel down any one or several paths during our jouney and hopefully we can use our joy to survive in the present moment.

So with this short discourse, I will proceed or better yet, "dive" into my past life with, of course, bias. Reviewing your life can be a clearinghouse as well as perhaps producing a great story. Each of us has a story or stories filled with the emotions that our mind produces. However, we are the captain of those emotions. We steer the struggles and smiles of our life.

Stories are our connections to life.