Gaining inspiriation
I am a person who, well, dwells on the past quite frequently. I mean, I should've been a historian because I revel in history so frequently. I guess you could call me a "history buff," too, of sorts, though I do not collect Confederate swords or wax stamps from the Victorian era. Nor can I spout out verbally every turning point of the battles of our country's wars. I do admire those who are able to do such things, however, one of which being Dad. He is like a walking history lesson, and I always feel richer, wiser, and more well-rounded after one of his expositions.
Though I adore history, and swear sometimes I was born in the wrong decade (I think I would have fit right into the times of the 1930s and 40s), I am not talking about that kind of past. The past I dwell on most frequently is my own, these (almost) 27 years that God has allowed me to live here on earth.
The journeys I've taken, the experiences I've had, the moves I've made, the friends I've found....these are all ever-resonating within the chambers of my memory each day. Not just because they might be interesting tidbits in and of themselves, but because I can see how God has most intricately woven each and every experience into the tapestry of my life as it appears today.
Many of us see the clean, unbroken patterns that we exhibit on the front of our woven life tapestry. But what lies on the flipside? The threads that criss-cross, the threads that are horribly knotted, the threads that are cut too short, the seams that are not quite bound completely. These are our backstories, and they may be just something many of us would like to forget, or something we think is unimportant and not worth mentioning.
Then why are biographies and autobiographies given their own entire section of shelves in libraries? Someone out there likes to read about others' lives, or these books would not be booming as they are. Though she is a well-known movie star, when Katharine Hepburn's latest biography came out two Novembers ago, I scrambled to the bookstore. My grandpa is the same way with any book about Charles Lindbergh. Even the seemingly trivial details of these peoples' lives are like literary treasures to some of us.
All this being said, I think I am going to embark on an endeavor to write some of my life down. If the only person who ever reads it is my husband, that will be okay. I am mainly writing it down for me. Part of the healing we all need to go through may be finally resolved simply by providing closure through the act of getting it all down on paper, so that we can see it and make peace with it. And of course, there are those happy memories that we write about which provide a lift and an emotional vacation back, a serene reflection of the way we were, a bright spot in our present days of everyday life happenings.
I encourage everyone to embrace from where they've traveled up to this point. You'd be surprised how many people would find your historical memories pure satisfaction to hear about, and how many others have had the exact same thing happen to them....though you never would have known it had you not shared.
Be creative....be open....be transparent. Let's be front-porch neighbors again instead of back-deck neighbors, hiding behind our grills (an analogy I heard once that really stuck in my mind). Life is too short not to share it with other people....especially to share how God is manifested within it.
Though I adore history, and swear sometimes I was born in the wrong decade (I think I would have fit right into the times of the 1930s and 40s), I am not talking about that kind of past. The past I dwell on most frequently is my own, these (almost) 27 years that God has allowed me to live here on earth.
The journeys I've taken, the experiences I've had, the moves I've made, the friends I've found....these are all ever-resonating within the chambers of my memory each day. Not just because they might be interesting tidbits in and of themselves, but because I can see how God has most intricately woven each and every experience into the tapestry of my life as it appears today.
Many of us see the clean, unbroken patterns that we exhibit on the front of our woven life tapestry. But what lies on the flipside? The threads that criss-cross, the threads that are horribly knotted, the threads that are cut too short, the seams that are not quite bound completely. These are our backstories, and they may be just something many of us would like to forget, or something we think is unimportant and not worth mentioning.
Then why are biographies and autobiographies given their own entire section of shelves in libraries? Someone out there likes to read about others' lives, or these books would not be booming as they are. Though she is a well-known movie star, when Katharine Hepburn's latest biography came out two Novembers ago, I scrambled to the bookstore. My grandpa is the same way with any book about Charles Lindbergh. Even the seemingly trivial details of these peoples' lives are like literary treasures to some of us.
All this being said, I think I am going to embark on an endeavor to write some of my life down. If the only person who ever reads it is my husband, that will be okay. I am mainly writing it down for me. Part of the healing we all need to go through may be finally resolved simply by providing closure through the act of getting it all down on paper, so that we can see it and make peace with it. And of course, there are those happy memories that we write about which provide a lift and an emotional vacation back, a serene reflection of the way we were, a bright spot in our present days of everyday life happenings.
I encourage everyone to embrace from where they've traveled up to this point. You'd be surprised how many people would find your historical memories pure satisfaction to hear about, and how many others have had the exact same thing happen to them....though you never would have known it had you not shared.
Be creative....be open....be transparent. Let's be front-porch neighbors again instead of back-deck neighbors, hiding behind our grills (an analogy I heard once that really stuck in my mind). Life is too short not to share it with other people....especially to share how God is manifested within it.
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Judith