This post was inspired by another post I wrote during the Summer Blog Challenge: 15 Life Tips to Your Better Life Journey.
I got such favorable responses, I decided to write short articles and sometimes, more tips, to go with the original article.
I'll repeat what I said there:
Hold lightly & apply with love.
I am going to preface this list of life tips with the last tip. Please read this as a beginning, an end and an in-between: Hold all of these tips lightly with love rather than duty. Duty is a fun-sucker, love is a fun-creator.
I can’t remember all the times I was told to keep scrapbooks filled with all sorts of stuff from my children’s lives. I tried. I did! When I was pregnant with Samuel my goal was to at least get started on Emma’s baby book.
I prepped photos, I collected stuff – and all of it sits in an 8 X 11 envelope, still waiting for me to get it together enough to get that scrapbook – baby book made.
So – you may be asking how can I be suggesting this very tip: Write things down, witness your moments & document with photos when you can’t do it yourself?
Well, truth is I have done it, I have simply done it in my own way. Which is
Key to Success #1: Find a way to document that suits your personality which you will continue to return to rather than abandon before you even get started. You might take photos for a month and then have a day to organize, categorize and choose which ones to print, hang and share. You might take photos every day and organize daily. Neither is wrong or right: either one is a success.
Key to Success #2: Carry a small notebook somewhere. I know, you can take notes on your phone (see #3) but a small notebook will help you to sketch something you see or ask your child to contribute or collect a quote from a surprising stranger and allow them to sign it. I know, notebooks seem old school – but you can even get tiny composition books from the dollar store. At least try this for a week or two and if it doesn’t fit, give your teeny tiny notebook to someone else to use.
Key to Success #3: Use your phone’s note taking feature to witness the world around you. I do this especially when I am standing in line. I found myself in a convenience store in a crummy part of town recently and to distract myself from freaking out wrote these lines:
Smell of a convenience store: inhabited by a crack head smelling like smoke, beer, and a t shirt worn for eight days in a row. Tattoos decorate the calves of a man in cut off shorts whose glassy eyes tell a story all their own I write lines for future poetry, perhaps, into my cell phone to stay safely distracted. Pink paint sparkles on my left thumb as I type type type into my android colornote “Armando, I looked the door,” she said, “We just had a beer run” Too long t shirt man puts a gallon and 81 cents into his dodge. I see glassy eyed man move in the opposite direction I will be driving in his car and I am frozen, unbelieving: I pray for his inebriated abilities and wish I had thought to write his license plate into my poem. Please, God, forgive me. Keep this neighborhood - this place – safe.
Key to Success #4 – Write using either the simplest form (strings of sentences) or a form that will inspire you to write (like haiku). Be sure to capture, anyway, so you will be able to hold this moment in the future.
Key to Success #5 – Don’t worry about having the biggest, best or most bad ass camera or tablet computer to collect your moments. Just use what you have. Test what works. Let go of what doesn’t and continue trying until you have your own brand of “keepers.”
You will soon have a potpourri of memorable stories, photos, poems and momentos to not only keep your family legacy alive, you may find yourself writing to earn money or teaching workshops or simply being a more engaging storyteller as you tuck your children into bed.
Whatever the result of this is, know it will make your life even better than it is today.
Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot
© 2012 by Julie Jordan Scott
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She leads Writing Camp with JJS & this Summer will be traveling throughout the US to bring this unique, fun filled creative experience to the people wherever she finds the passion & the interest.
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