Magical Memoir Moments
A Memoir that Awakens the Spiritual Version of the American Dream
This morning, as is our habit, my husband and I attended Skyridge Church of the Brethren. Our pastor Debbie preached about healing, using as a lectionary text Psalm 30, the one that promises, in the majestic language of the King James Bible, that “weeping endureth for the night but joy cometh in the morning.” This…
Slumdog Millionaire: A Metaphor for the Power of Memoir
Well, folks, it may be time to create a new category. I saw a lot of good movies this holiday season. Did you? Here’s the list of ones I saw: Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, Doubt, Milk,and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I recommend each of these films, and all of them have connections to memoir,…
The Latest Memoir Controversy: Angel at the Fence
“Read all about it!,” the newsboys could be saying, if there were newsboys today. “Another memoir bites the dust!” “Oprah decides to vet all future memoirists with truth serum!” Of course, there is brand new president, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an economic meltdown to report on, too, but, hey, memoir dishes up conflict…
My Stroke of Insight: A Spiritual Memoir
I will cut to the chase on the last night of the year 2008. I loved this book. I read it nearly in one sitting, fascinated by the straightforward telling of an incredible story. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist working at the Brain Bank at Harvard University, woke up one morning with a headache…
Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory by Maureen Murdock
One of the wise women I am honored to have in my life, Angeles Arrien, recommended this book to me. I found the book thoughtful and provocative, a wonderful distillation of many years of reflection both on the author’s personal story but also on the process of living, reflecting, writing, and transforming. Reading this book,…
Memoir(and): Should You Subscribe?
I seldom read every article in a magazine that comes to my house. Without time for hours of reading every day, I do a lot of skimming instead of deep reading. I wish it were not so. However, with a long trip ahead and a little determination due to having chosen to make the new…
Do You Know Your Own Geology?
Today one of my colleagues at the Fetzer Institute, Dr. Joel Elkes, celebrates his 95th birthday. No, that is not a typo. He was born in 1913, lived through two World Wars and a century of struggle. He was a student in England in the 30’s and 40’s and thus escaped the Holocaust, though many…
Memoir, Formula, and the Hero's Journey
I subscribe to Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac, which comes into my inbox first thing every morning. I enjoy starting the day with a poem and some interesting facts about writers and writing. The October 12 entry introduced me to Lester Dent, a writer I had never heard of before. Here’s the text that caught…
Living the Questions
“Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers.” –Rainer Maria Rilke I am trying to go deeper with my understanding of this famous quote, which I loved from the time I first read it in Letters to a Young Poet. Like most mothers,…