TURNING 60?
An Invitation to Share Your Story
~~~~~~~~~~WHAT WOULD YOUR STORY TELL?~~~~~~~~~~
AN INVITATION
Playwright David Hare said “THE ART OF WRITING IS THE ART OF DISCOVERING WHAT YOU BELIEVE.”
What do YOU believe is important now that you are at or approaching this milestone? I invite you to simply think about how it feels to be where you are today and what you have gone through to get here. Ask yourself what is important - what are the lessons learned that you would like to pass along to someone else? Would you put this collective knowlege in the form of a letter or a short story?
"LIFE IS A HANDFUL OF SHORT STORIES PRETENDING TO BE A NOVEL"
I wish I could claim this quote, but some anonymous person beat me to it!
Now that I think about it, with my 60th birthday a little over a year away, my life does seem to resemble a bunch of short stories. But if I put them all together - these mini novels that show me evolving, learning, and growing more comfortable with my Real Self over the past decades - would they make for a good read? In retrospect, would my stories help me figure out why I am the way I am today at age 58 and counting? Would they help others understand why I did what I did along the way when I was still blazing a path toward my own maturity?
Aging is not something we usually look forward to yet how many times has it been said that going back to our 20s or 30s wouldn’t be so bad as long as we could take along what we have already learned? This is where those little novellas of ours might come into the picture, don't you agree? Each one would account for life’s lessons - the stuff we would like to “take with us” should we have the opportunity to go back and do it all over again.
Considering the twists and turns that each story might tell about how we have evolved over our life till now, what would you write about and who would you want to read them? Our children are now old enough to give us credit for knowing a few things about life, so perhaps the first two or three chapters of our accumulated wisdom might help them navigate through their own young adult/parenthood a little easier.
For most of us, our parents are deceased, so wouldn’t it be nice to be able to let them know that we actually made it to age 60 - the same age they were at when we thought we had all the answers and our parents were just too old to be anything other than, well, our parents? Come to think of it, isn’t it funny how history seems to repeat itself here?
But when it comes to dedications, I think grandparents usually deserve an entire book all to themselves. My grandmother was the one I always counted on for unconditional love. I didn’t have to make good grades, look pretty, clean up my room (or myself), date the right boy, or even remember her birthday for her to still be there for me. I would love to dedicate the last chapter of my novel to her! In this final chapter I could tell how far I’ve come since those early years when she loved me unconditionally but I was too young to know the difference. I could also explain how I have learned over the years about her kind of giving AND receiving. Often learned the hard way, these lessons remain with us forever - we learn from them, grow, and survive.
I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU! To whom would you write your novels - dedicate your stories? What are your lessons learned? Who helped influence your life or taught you about unconditional love and self-awareness?
If you are within a year or two on either side of your 60th birthday, I invite you to come join me in this writing exercise.
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