The Novel of Your Life

I want to add an exerpt to this blog on Faithbooking...In order to start I am going to add this as the first in the series of blogs I will add. It is my hope that you start your own "Novel of Life."

Have you ever thought of your life as a mystery novel? As a situation comedy? An epic movie adventure? A heart-wrenching memoir?

Your life might not be ready for print, but it still has a story to tell -- and the best person to tell it to is yourself. Looking back over the course of your life is the best way I know to begin to discern the miraculous circumstances that have brought you where you are today and to begin trusting the miracles that will take you into the future.

How do you tell your story to yourself? The simplest, most effective way I know is to write it down. You don't have to prepare a full-fledged memoir or autobiography. You can simply set yourself the goal of writing a ten-page summary of where your life has brought you so far.

Here's a good place to start. Find a legal pad (or site down at your computer) and scrawl out a one-page account of your ealiest clear and full memory. Who was ther?e What happened? How old were you? Don't just sketch in a bare outline. Try to write down specific details -- sights, sounds, smells, feelings. Make the picture as vivid as possible, without worrrying too much about what may be important or relevant.

Chances are, as you explore that specific memory, more memoires will occur to you. Keep a separate page handy to jot them down -- your first Christmas, the puppy you had as a child, your friend who moved away, the teacher who helpd you understand math. You may recall people you haven't seen in years, places you had all but forgotten, events that have totally slipped your mind. The very act of writing down your memoires is almost guaranteed to trigger more and more memories.

Next, on a new sheet, you might want to begin a general outline of the events in your life -- where you lived, where you went to school, how the dates of your experience coincided with the dates of history. Where were you when John F. Kennedy was assassinated? When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  When the Berlin Wall came down?  Write down dates that you remember, events that loom as important in your mind.  Write down addresses and names.  These concrete facts are part of the picture, too.  They'll help you put your more subjective memories in perspective.

After you've collected enough random memories or the flow of remembering had started to ebb, and after you've sketched in a general outline, go back and read what you have written so far.  Look for patterns and watershed events, the relationships and occurrences that determined the direction of your life.  What experiences gave you encouragement and urged you on?  Which ones made you cautious or afraid?  Who helped you?  Who influences you?

Consider the ways you responded to events as well, for this will be clearer in retrospect.  Look for times when you have learned from mistakes and times when have you repeated the same mistakes over and over again.  Consider what you regret and what you are proud of.  Look for patterns in your responses.

Most of all, try to find those points in your life where what has happened and what you have done converged to move you forward and significanlty shape the person you have become.  Those are your miracles!  Thank God for them, even for those that seem to have moved you in a negative direciton.  Remember that your life story isn't finished yet -- you can't presume to know how it will come out.  You never know when what looks like a curse might turn out to be a blessing.

The process of telling your story doesn't have to be completed in a day or even a week.  It may take you months to gather your memories and pare them down into ten pages of the most significant events.  You may even decide the process is so interesting that you want to write more than ten pages.

Telling your story can be enormously helpful, but there is no law that insists your life story has to be written.  If you are more visually oriented, perhaps you would prefer to sketch your memories or to prepare an album of selected photographs.  Perhaps you'd prefer to speak your recollections into an audio or video recorder.  Or you could relate your memories to your children out loud.  Keep in mind that your point is to look at your past from a fresh perspective, learning to see and appreciate the patterns of providence that have shaped your life.

While you're in the process, I suggest giving yourself some inspiration by reading and listening to the stories of other lives.  Read biographies of people you admire.  Good fiction, too, can hold up a helpful mirror to the process of telling your life story.  And one of your best sources of both information and inspiration is the members of your own family.  Ask questions of those who are older, especially your parents and grandparents.  Interview them and encourage them to tell you their own stories.  The act of listening will strengthen your relationships while helping you understand the unfolding of your own life.

Finally, after you've listened to stories of the past and told some of your own, I urge you to continue the process of storytelling on a regular basis.  Viewing the progress of your life from a distance, as a filmmaker or writer, is an invaluable tool in discerning the presences of your personal miracles.  Those events that seem definitive occurred for a reason.  Each turning point in your life is the key to a new direction, each closed door a chance to explore new options.

From Thomas Kinkade's "Lightpost for Living:  The Art of Choosing a Joyful Life.